“I Want the Whole World to See It”: Victim’s Father, Hostage’s Partner Speak at London Premiere of Oct. 7 Doc ‘We Will Dance Again’
We Will Dance Again, a 90-minute documentary about the victims and survivors of the massacre at the Nova Music Festival, one of the sites in Israel that was attacked by Hamas a year ago, got a special preview screening in London on Tuesday evening courtesy of the BBC, whose Storyville doc strand is debuting the program in the U.K. on Wednesday night.
Using the testimony of survivors, CCTV and mobile phone footage, the film tells the personal stories of some of the people who lived and many who died. It shows partygoers hiding under the stage, in a fridge, toilets and trash containers and plays recordings of some of the emergency calls made to the Israeli army, police and ambulance service. The party, which began as a celebration for around 3,500 Israelis and other nationals, ended with 364 people being killed and 44 being taken hostage.
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After Tuesday’s screening at the Jewish Community Center JW3 in North London, journalist Emma Barnett hosted a Q&A panel discussion with the doc’s writer and director Yariv Mozer (The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes, Ben Gurion: Epilogue, My First War), as well as festival survivors Noam, Kfir and Ziv, whose fiancé Eliya remains a hostage in Gaza, and Moshe Shapiro, the father of victim Aner. The doc airs on BBC Two this week and then becomes available on the U.K. public broadcaster’s iPlayer streaming service. Paramount+ premiered it on Tuesday.
Aner’s father was asked about watching a part of the doc that explains how his son picked up one live Hamas hand grenade after another and threw them away to protect a group of people seeking safety in a small bomb shelter. “You saw the cruel thing and the worst sight that you can imagine. People came with the aim of massacre, of raping, of killing, slaughtering, burning people of all religions. They killed Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists. They killed all of them. And it was, first of all, a party of love and peace. This is what unites all the people in the party.”
He continued: “What Aner did, that’s an act of goodness. … I think it’s almost a biblical message that showed us that if you are moral in your values and you have the love of people — because he knew only two friends that came with him in the beginning, but he knew that he had to stand and protect them and others, whatever they are, Jews or Muslims. And he succeeded for 44 minutes to stand against 20 fully armed terrorists with machine guns, with grenades, with RPGs. He didn’t succeed in saving his life, but he succeeded in saving others’ lives. And this is a message: If you are standing on a moral base, you can fight evil. And that’s something general. It’s not [only] connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s something that is a lesson for humanity.”
Ziv, who was hiding in the same shelter as Aner, was visibly overcome by emotion when she shared: “Because of Aner and because of his bravery, I am here. He saved my life.” Wearing a T-shirt with her fiancé’s face and name on it, she emphasized: “There are still 101 hostages in Gaza, and it’s not over. This is not a story for the past. We are [still] living this nightmare.”
Noam, who earned applause for walking and standing after a shocking moment in the doc that shows her in a wheelchair, brought stickers in memory of David, telling the London audience: “I want you all to grab one and stick it all over the world.” She added: “David was my hero from the beginning until the end, until now. The fact that I’m on my feet is because I have David in my head, in my heart, in my body. … Now I know that energy doesn’t die, and people that you love [are] still here with you. I can talk to David every single day. I get so many signs from him.”
Kfir discussed living with the knowledge that friends and many others died: “I have one look at the sky, and I can feel them. It’s very hard, but it gives me a lot of meaning. Now I feel that I’m living not only for myself. I feel them.”
He added about participating in the doc: “I wanted people to understand that I had friends who came with me to celebrate love who didn’t come back. And I will do my best every day to make this message go through.”
How are the Oct. 7 survivors dealing with the trauma? “We actually have the Nova community, and as a Nova survivor, we have this course, and we learn how to deal with the trauma, and how to be able to help others in the future,” shared Noam. “Actually, friends of David and I raised donations and [created this] NGO. We built a house in Thailand for young people that were serving in the Army during the seventh of October or are survivors. And if they want to go and leave Israel for a little bit to get their minds [off of things], they can come.” She said the idea came about because after the massacre, “I wanted to get mental health help, and they didn’t really have an answer for that. So I wanted to build something so others can have this treatment. And, of course, the Nova people, we have this beautiful community. We are there for each other, which is the most amazing thing.”
Produced by HSCC’s Michal Weitz, We Will Dance Again was executive produced by Emilio Schenker, Michael Peter Schmidt, Ariel Weissbrod, Orly Arbell and Gideon Tadmor for Sipur; Sheldon Lazarus, Ben Winston, Leo Pearlman, Ben Turner and Gabe Turner for Bitachon 365; Dari Shay, Rinat Klein, Haim Slutsky and Dorit Hessel for HSCC; Lucie Kon for BBC Storyville; Arturo Interian; and Susan Zirinsky and Terence Wrong for See It Now Studios.
Lucie Kon, commissioning editor at BBC Storyville, previously said: “I am grateful to the young survivors of the Nova Music Festival who have trusted us to share their experiences of that terrible day so that BBC viewers can get a sense of some of what they experienced. This is an important film.”
Mozer previously said: “I see it as my duty as a documentary filmmaker to bring to the world the testimonies and horrific stories of the survivors of this slaughter, those who are no longer with us, and the countless who are still captured hostages in Gaza, with their fate remaining unknown. These are young women and men whose only sin was their desire for music and the passion to celebrate free love, spirit, and freedom.”
In their post-screening panel in London, the survivors were also asked how they felt about audiences around the world seeing some of the horror they had to witness. “I heard a lot of times that people denied and people can’t really imagine the whole thing,” Kfir shared. “So I’m very proud of Yariv. I couldn’t see the movie. It took me a lot of time to see the movie because he makes the message very clear: Where is the evil and where is the love?”
Mozer shared that beyond Paramount+ in the U.S. and the BBC in the U.K., the doc will also be seen in Israel on doc channel Hot 8, on Germany’s RTL, along with Spain, Australia and more. He said it can help people understand “the starting point of where we are today,” adding “the terror, the catastrophe, everything — this film is an evidence.”
Noam shared: “I don’t think anyone has ever seen something like this, besides [in] movies, so the human mind cannot even imagine something like this. So yeah, you can choose if you want to look at it or not, but it is my mission to let it out so everyone can understand and have it in their mind. Because this is something that you will never forget.” She concluded: “I will never forget, and it is important for everyone to see that. I want the whole world to see it.”
We Will Dance Again is now streaming on Paramount+ and the BBC iPlayer.
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