‘Our Loves’: Director Avi Nesher on His October 7 Film, Netanyahu and Boycotts Over Israeli Art
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- Avi Nesher wrote and directed "Our Loves," which earned 12 Ophir Award nominations including Best Film and serves as the opening night selection of the Haifa International Film Festival
- "Our Loves" follows five Israeli characters — including a young woman named Liri and security guard Nicco at the Nova music festival — based on real survivors Nesher interviewed after meeting displaced kibbutz members at a post-attack screening of his prior film "The Monkey House"
- Nesher deliberately kept Hamas militants "faceless" in the film, telling TIFF that the October 7 atrocities were "so horrible" he wouldn't know how to write those characters "the same way that I wouldn't know how to write Charles Manson"
- During filming of the Nova massacre sequence, air-raid sirens interrupted a take because that night marked the start of the Iran-Israel war, forcing 100 extras and 60 crew members in a remote location with "no taxis, no cars and no shelter" to scramble for safety
- "Our Loves" is being distributed internationally by Fox Entertainment, and Nesher said TIFF is "the least politicized of all the festivals" while acknowledging that "anything that concerns Israel is bound to receive pushback right now"
- Nesher framed the film as a story about "the people who were unwillingly caught up in" the attacks rather than "the historic, military, or political aspects of October 7," with the final hour-plus of its two-hour runtime depicting the violence
Why it matters: Nesher's choice to keep Hamas militants faceless and focus on individual survivors' "inner lives" — rather than the political or military dimensions of October 7 — positions "Our Loves" as a flashpoint in debates over Israeli artistic storytelling abroad. With 12 Ophir nominations and TIFF's Centrepiece slot, it's the highest-profile October 7 feature to reach global festival screens.
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