The terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, wherein Hamas and other Palestinian militants poured across the Gaza-Israel barrier into southern Israel, attacking 21 communities and killing 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals (and abducting an additional 251 people), have been revisited a number of times via documentaries (“We Will Dance Again”) and miniseries (“One Day in October”), but now it is coming to the silver screen.
Premiering in the Centrepiece section of the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, “Our Loves” follows five Israeli men and women in the days leading up to and on October 7. There is Liri (Noa Cohen), a young woman struggling with her father Shabi (Shalom Michaelshvili) divorcing her mother; Milly (Magi Azarzar), a policewoman hiding her pregnant fiancée from her mother; Nicco (Yaniv Biton), a security guard at the Nova music festival; and Sapir (Daniel Gimpel), a young woman freshly dumped by her boyfriend who wishes to dance the pain away. Their lives are upended by the horrific attacks of October 7 and they’re forced to put the pieces back together.
“Our Loves” is written and directed by veteran Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher (“Past Life”), who culled its stories from real-life survivors. Nesher spent four years as an analyst in the IDF before becoming a director, and he is adamant that the movie is not an October 7 film, despite the final hour-plus of its two-hour runtime depicting the violent attacks across Israel, including the Nova music festival massacre.
