At the beginning, I thought maybe to tell my friends to leave, but at that point, it was already too late. They’re shooting and trying to kidnap us or kill us. – Eitan, 28, a survivor of the attacks at the Nova Music Fest
It’s been less than five minutes. We saw a man dressed in black running toward us. In the background, automatic gunfire. And he is screaming as he runs. ‘Either you run now and survive or you stay here and it’s over for you’. – Noam, 27, who was shot and survived, but her partner David did not.
Words are truly inadequate to convey what it means to watch people, in real time, being hunted, caught, and shot. The haunting new documentary, We Will Dance Again, presents this as unflinchingly as it happened in the early morning hours of Oct. 7, 2023. Israeli filmmaker Yariv Mozer (Ben-Gurion, Epilogue, To Err Is Human, and Snails In The Rain) uses videos made by the festival goers and footage from Hamas body cameras and shares the accounts of more than a dozen survivors, many of them 20-something students, in interviews conducted in the months after the massacre. They recall the peaceful, joyous spirit of the rave the night before and the chilling turn the day takes after 6:29 a.m. when they see the first air strikes in the sky. The young adults are remarkably calm and self-possessed as they speak of the hell of that day and the lasting impact it will have on them.
It will be hard for viewers to comprehend what’s unfolding, just as it is for the thousands of people at the fest in the moment, which we see through their continual filming. The attendees have the dawning, horrifying realization of what’s happening and the knowledge that there’s little they can do to stop it or protect themselves: the event, near the Gaza border, is in an open, exposed field, and the armed terrorists quickly breach the border fence at 60 different points. The military, which has a base nearby, does not arrive and the police and fire departments (the ones that answer the phone at all) don’t grasp that people are being executed despite many calls to them from the desperate individuals. We hear a recording of the police informing a terrified caller, “I can’t help you right now.”
It will ultimately be six hours before the police appear, and eight until the army comes to the site. The documentary serves as a searing condemnation of the Israeli government. It’s inconceivable that a country so well armed and so militarized as to have mandatory service and to have built a dome to protect its citizens from air strikes, would be so grossly unprepared for the deadly assault. Families of some of the individuals at Nova who were murdered – 364 men and women were slaughtered and 44 were kidnapped – have brought a lawsuit (currently pending) against the government.
For those who might ask why watch We Will Dance Again or what its value is, my answer is, for the same reason that we read about or watch documentaries and movies on the Holocaust, about Indigenous people, about George Floyd: to honor the dead and the survivors, and to not forget – a fundamental instruction for Jews. Countless people around the world came to know the name Hersh Goldberg-Polin over the last year because his family and friends devoted themselves to reminding officials and the public that he and more than 100 hostages taken that day (from the festival and numerous other locations), were still being held captive month after month. Tragically, Hamas murdered Goldberg-Polin in August, and that may mean far less attention is being given to dozens from the festival that Hamas is still believed to be holding. The documentary serves as a powerful call to demand the release of the remaining hostages, to stop the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians – to date, more than 40,000 have died – and to hold the authorities accountable.
We Will Dance Again is unquestionably sad and disturbing: it isn’t a documentary for everyone and not just anyone should see it, though Mozer is deliberate and respectful in selecting what he shows, blurring the faces and bodies of the dead. The title and the incredible resiliency of the survivors offer a measure of hope, a powerful thing urgently needed now.
We Will Dance Again is available on Paramount+.
