THE STORY – Multiple lives intersect and transform during a single day as terror strikes Israel on October 7, 2023, forever altering the paths of those caught in the chaos.
THE CAST – Shalom Michaelshvili, Magi Azarzar, Yaniv Biton, Lena Fraifeld, Daniel Gimpel, Noa Cohen, Evelin Hagoel, Hadas Yaron, Chancela “Sean” Mongoza, Hisham Suleiman & Amir Banai
THE TEAM – Avi Nesher (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 117 Minutes
Over several decades, many of director Avi Nesher’s films have navigated the complex connection between broader political and social events with the deeply personal moments made up of a mix of joy and tragedy. From historical dramas to musical comedies and even zombie movies, his output has been diverse, but it’s the tales of human drama that have drawn the most attention at international festivals. His latest film “Our Loves” is perhaps his most challenging yet, given how inexorably this fictionalization of the events of October 7th, 2023 will be seen through the ossified positions of so many. On the one hand this is the story of a group of individuals living their lives and dealing with their daily dramas, feeling the frustrations of careers, of love, of friendship, even of parental pressure, all while going about their daily lives. Echoing the likes of Altman’s “Short Cuts” with its sense of dread and interconnected narratives, it’s a compelling film that leans deeply into what happens when a bad day personally gets so much worse.
Nesher’s film at its heart tries throughout to focus on the human drama of such an onslaught rather than the causes or repercussions. Whether its witnessing the dancers at the Nova festival prior to their fleeing in terror, the recreating of shootings within the border communities, or the swarms of attackers on motorbikes hunting down individuals to either slaughter them or take them away as hostages, it’s a series of images and storylines that have been co-opted by millions around the world who see the same events through radically different lenses. Yet Nasher’s film, at its heart, tries to focus squarely on the humanity behind the sloganeering. It’s a deeply realized character drama, with each individual navigating their own foibles and fears within the microcosm of their own experience, even if far greater forces are at play making things that much more difficult to rise above.
The cast, which includes internationally recognized performers such as “Félix & Meira’s” Hadas Yaron, “Munich’s” Hisham Suleiman, and “Valeria is Getting Married’s” Lena Fraifeld, as well as Magi Azarzar, Daniel Gimpel, Shalom Michaelshvili, all bring a depth of subtlety and grace to this challenging tale. One cannot predict when the world feels as its about to end, and the awkwardness of meeting a potential mother-in-law or the emotional residue from a jilted fiancée all echo how the actual pain of these deeply personal moments is neither erased nor ameliorated by larger, more existentially wrought events of broader impact. Each performer navigates these heightened moments in ways that feel deeply truthful, without ever coming across as maudlin.
It’s this deft balance between the deeply personal and the more widespread concerns without succumbing to melodrama that gives the film much of its bite, and why there’s an insistence that the film isn’t simply narrowly about the telling of a tragedy, but about how even the most horrifying of experiences are shared when every day concerns are still very much part of what makes us human. “Our Loves” is most effective when it’s away from the battle zones, and perhaps it should have followed more of Altman’s lead and left those moments more visually distant, focusing that much more directly on the fear of what’s outside the door versus following those in from a third-person perspective.
This is a minor criticism, however, and surely the counter argument would be that to erase these moments would itself be a kind of cowardice. Such is how challenging such near-histories can be. One need only look at how Hollywood navigated its post-9/11 cinema in ways subtle and allegorical (Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds”), as a vicarious action thriller (Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center”), as a serendipitous inclusion for a model of anxiety as production unfolded (Spike Lee’s “25th Hour”), as the foundation for excoriation (Roger Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11”), as fodder for a fable that’s pretentious and manipulative (Stephen Daldry’s “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close“), or a heartbreaking and terrifying claustrophobic drama about regular people caught up in extraordinary circumstances with fatal consequences (Stephen Greengrass’ “United 93”).
There are ingredients from just about all these modes in “Our Loves.” But Nasher’s film most deeply succeeds in how it manages to amplify empathy for those caught up in this terrible moment in ways that can be seen far from the granular scope of these particular circumstances. This isn’t a film that provides excuse or explanation, but it is one where emotions are given space, where three dimensional characters are seen to respond in their own specific ways to what life has thrown at them. This is a film that can’t be everything for everyone, but it’s one that’s eminently worthy of being experienced, its characters deserving of being seen, its stories deserving of being heard.
