We Will Dance Again: Will This October 7 Documentary Make a Difference?

We Will Dance Again, an award-winning documentary by Yariv Mozer, is a stirring and haunting account of the atrocities that Hamas committed in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The film is a compilation of eyewitness interview testimonies, survivor cell phone footage, maps and video captured by the terrorists themselves. It serves as hard evidence of Hamas’ killings, rapes, mutilations and heinous acts. After one views this documentary, it is unquestionable what took place. The documentary deposes any deniers and is eye-opening for others.

The film begins by providing details about the 2023 Nova Music Festival–its origin, purpose, location and attendees. It’s an idyllic scene–a visual of the majestic, colorful canopy erected in the barren desert, with the disc jockey booth and dance area setting the stage, so to speak. Sound, lighting, refrigeration, camping and other equipment abound for this extraordinary and rare event. Attendees describe their impulse to dance, commune with nature and feel free.

Noteworthy is the exuberance and enthusiasm of the youthful festivalgoers, the majority in their 20s, full of life, verve and potential. As described by their friends, these were truly beautiful people – not only in their looks as you can see by the photographs, but in their hearts and souls.

Memorable were the teenage girl in the wheelchair accompanied by her dad (her wheelchair was found later empty), and a couple in their 20s who were truly bashert (fated to be together), planning marriage and children. Of the couple, I believe the female’s name was Noa. After being shot while hiding in a dumpster with many others, including her fiancé, Noa alone survived. For the major portion of her eyewitness interview, she is shown from the head up. Later, when the camera zooms out, we see her in her wheelchair, telling the audience she is learning to walk again.

Footage of rocket fire and terrorists breaking through the gate, along with maps explaining the planned attack, end the bucolic scene of the rave in the desert. We follow the stories of different survivors–where they ran, where they hid and how they survived. Several made it out alive by pretending to be dead. Some were still healing from their injuries. All will need to heal, if possible, from the trauma and its psychological toll.

One survivor tells of hiding with others in a roadside shelter. Cell phone footage captures the mass of individuals huddled together. Appalling are the grenades we see repeatedly thrown into the shelter by a Hamas terrorist and their consecutive ejections by a brave victim who attempted to save all their lives.

When the film flashes a photo of the group in the shelter, Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s face is instantly recognizable, as his family members have been the most vocal and public activists for the hostages’ release. Later, Hersh reappears, rather expressionless, this time without one hand. Then he is shown being taken hostage, thrown in the back of a pick-up truck. I had a visceral, painful reaction to seeing him, especially since I knew that Hamas murdered him after the making of this film.

The film reveals no politics. It does not cover any history before October 7. It does not explain the origins of Hamas or the situation in the Middle East. The film would have taken a different turn had it done so; it would have had a different purpose and perhaps lost viewership if politics intervened.

But is it enough to record these events without context for Hamas’ attack? Any viewer unaware of Israel’s history or the situation in the Middle East may be at a loss.

Some people have declared that Israel deserved the attack. For the past year, we Jews have withstood hate groups and antisemites calling for the destruction of Israel, labelling it an apartheid state, claiming that Israel is guilty of genocide in this Israel-Hamas war and coercing individuals and institutions to divest from Israel.

It is unfortunate that this film in no way dispels any of that disinformation.

On college campuses and around the nation, we have witnessed Hamas supporters waving their flags, wearing their garb, shouting their slogans, defacing property, harassing and intimidating Jewish students and committing acts of violence. This tidal wave of hatred is consuming the ignorant and uninformed and giving strength and support to those who are truly antisemitic.

Perhaps this film was not the medium to confront these protestors, but the world needs an education. Hopefully this film is one step toward a broader education. At a minimum, as Mozer, its director, related, we hope this film ensures no one will ever forget.

To quote Carol Ann Schwartz, National President of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, in an October 6, 2024, message, One Year Later: A Moral Imperative to Help the World Remember:

“Remembrance must be a call to action, a moral imperative – to do all we can to make sure the world recognizes the scope of Hamas’ atrocities. We must continue to serve the reminder that among the slaughtered were civilians of all ages and faiths, including peaceniks celebrating on their kibbutzim and young people dancing at the Nova Music Festival. Israelis of all faiths and walks of life share this trauma. Jews of all nations have a longer list now of things we must Never Forget.”

—

Diane is a member of the Hadassah Writers’ Circle, a dynamic and diverse writing group for leaders and members to express their thoughts and feelings about all the things Hadassah does to make the world a better place, to celebrate their personal Hadassah journeys and to share their Jewish values, family traditions and interpretations of Jewish texts. Since 2019, the Hadassah Writers’ Circle has published nearly 450 columns in the Times of Israel Blog and other Jewish media outlets. Interested? Please contact hwc@hadassah.org.