We Will Dance Again, a documentary film featuring a minute-by-minute retelling of the October 7 Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival which is set to air on the BBC, will not describe Hamas as a terrorist organization, Israeli director Yariv Mozer revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday.
Mozer said this was a concession he agreed to so the British public could see the atrocities depicted in the film and decide for themselves.
In March, it was announced that the BBC had acquired the film for broadcast and would co-produce the project. "It was a price I was willing to pay so that the British public will be able to see these atrocities and decide if this is a terrorist organization or not," Mozer said.
He also noted that the German network RTL chose to air the film in prime time with commercials, a decision he compared to the airing of Schindler’s List.
Mozer added that the documentary, which will also be shown in Australia, Spain and on Paramount+ in the United States, was offered to several U.S. streaming platforms. However, they were hesitant to pick it up due to concerns about the political situation, especially in light of the October 7 attacks.
"The film isn’t political. It’s told from the eyes of the survivors and from the eyes of Hamas. There is one truth about what happened," he said.
When asked about his choice to include graphic footage, Mozer explained that it was a constant discussion among the creative team.
"I wanted to keep as much as possible, to be able to show how enormous the scale of this attack was and the brutality of these atrocities against people who couldn’t defend themselves," he said.
Addressing the contrast between the secular, progressive victims at the Nova music festival and the conservative, fundamentalist attackers, Mozer said, "That’s the reality. A brutal fundamentalistic movement is obsessively looking to destroy the values of Western society. These were young people at a music festival celebrating life and love and peace: very naïve, very free-spirited. And they faced the most horrific people, who value death."
Produced by SIPUR Studios and Slutzky Productions, We Will Dance Again will air on HOT8, the BBC and Paramount+ on the anniversary of the attack.
The BBC has faced significant criticism for its coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas since last October. A recent report in The Telegraph claimed that the network had committed over 1,500 violations of its editorial guidelines in its Gaza war coverage and exhibited a "deeply troubling pattern of bias" against Israel.