Just a month before the first anniversary of Hamas' attack on Israel and the start of the war in Gaza, Israeli filmmakers have brought the horrors of the conflict to the Venice Film Festival.
"Of Dogs And Men" was filmed on location in a kibbutz that was targeted by Hamas terrorists during the massacre on October 7, following a teenage girl seeking her dog that she had lost during the assault she herself had survived days before.
Confronting the aftermath of the massacre in her own shattered community, she witnesses, at a distance, the tragedy unfolding across the border fence in Gaza as Israeli forces pound the coastal enclave.
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Nora Lifshitz and actor Ori Avinoam pose during a photocall for the movie "Al klavim veanashim" (Of Dogs and Men) at Venice Film Festival
(Photo: Yara Nardi / Reuters)
Speaking before Friday's world premiere of his movie, director Dani Rosenberg dismissed suggestions it might be too soon to be making a fictional film out of the conflict that is still raging in the Gaza Strip.
"I felt very strongly that it was the right time to tell the story," he told Reuters. "I think it's our job, as filmmakers, to open a window onto reality in order, perhaps, to allow for a ray of humanity to enter."
On the first day of the festival, more than 300 filmmakers, actors, writers and musicians published a letter condemning the inclusion "Of Dogs And Men" and another Israeli film, "Why War", saying Israeli production houses were complicit in the "oppression of Palestinians".
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Blood and destruction in children's bedroom in Be'eri in the wake of the Hamas October 7 massacre
(Photo: Ronen Zvulun / Reuters)
Rosenberg shrugged off the boycott call, saying those who had signed the letter had not even seen his film.
"Ultimately, my aspiration is for the war to end and their aspiration is also for the war to end, meaning, in that sense, that we share the same goal. I just don't agree with their way of promoting it."
Though the story is fictional, it uses genuine locations, improvised dialogue and real-life locals, with only the main character played by an actress - 18-year-old Ori Avinoam.