Avi Nesher’s Our Loves to have world premiere in Toronto
The world premiere of Israeli director Avi Nesher’s new film Our Loves will take place in Toronto, Canada, on September 13. The film will be screened in the Centerpiece program of the Toronto International Film Festival. It tells the story of Israelis whose personal, romantic and family problems precede the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, after which the characters try to survive and rethink their lives.
As The Jerusalem Post reports, the film will open the Haifa International Film Festival in Israel on September 26. It is also set to be released in cinemas across Israel on October 15, with an international release planned later.
Stories before and after October 7
Nesher stressed that he did not want to make a film exclusively about October 7. According to him, the screenplay is based on the stories of people who survived the attack and had personal difficulties before it — romantic, family, religious and others. SIPUR enlisted three researchers who found such people, after which the director began writing the screenplay.
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The film’s events begin on the evening of October 5, 2023, at a concert where most of the main characters end up for different reasons. Among them is Sapir, a religious young woman who decides to go to the Nova music festival after a breakup. Another storyline concerns retired general Shabi, whose conflict with his ex-wife over the sale of a house worsens his relationship with his children.
Work on the film
The director said that he initially rejected the idea of making a film about October 7, believing that historians should make sense of the tragedy. His position changed after a meeting with residents of one of the affected kibbutzim, who were living in a hotel at the Dead Sea after the attack. They asked Nesher to screen his previous film The Monkey House, tickets for which they had bought before October 7.
Our Loves became Nesher’s 22nd feature film. Emilio Schenker of SIPUR, Danny Cohen of Access Entertainment, Fernando Szew of FOX Entertainment Studios and Moshe Edery of United King Films joined the production team. According to Nesher, many members of the cast and crew lost friends during the attack, while two members of the team were at the Nova festival.
