October 7, 2023 saw brutal Hamas attacks in Southern Israel at the Nova Music Festival where 378 people were murdered and 7 communities including the Nahal Oz Kibbutz where 60 civilians and IDF soldiers were killed. Close to 1,200 Israeli’s died in these attacks. Israeli retribution attacks have resulted in some 69,000 deaths in Gaza, at least according to Hamas.
“The Road Between Us” documents the daring and courageous rescue by Noam Tibon, a retired major-general in the IDF and his wife Gali-Mir Tibon of their son Amir Tibon, his wife Miri Tibon and their two infant children at the Nahal Oz Kibbutz.
Mortars started pounding the kibbutz at 07:00 on 7October2023. Safe rooms in each house, if reached in time, offered safety from the Hamas rampage. Hamas fighters indiscriminately gunned down residents as filmed by Hamas fighters’ bodycams, a colossal error in judgment at this point which will lead to its extinction as a military and political force.
Miri and Noam rushed 85 kilometers from Tel Aviv to the kibbutz in their Jeep to save his son’s family and what distressing carnage littered the roadside. Piles of bodies here and there, corpses filling roadside shelters and burned-out vehicles. Noam encountered his former commanding officer at a checkpoint and with a handful of IDF soldiers battled Hamas fighters importantly wiping out a small Hamas contingent attempting to block the road leading to Nahal Oz. With a small group of crack IDF commandos they finally reached the compound of the kibbutz battling their way to clear the compound of Hamas fighters and eventually reaching Amir, Miri and their children.
Noam and in fact most of Israel were angered with the failure of the IDF to react promptly to the attacks and over estimating the effectiveness of security perimeters around the kibbutz. Gali remarked the whole reason for the creation of Israel was to protect Jews but that foundation collapsed on 7October2023. Both Gali and Noam share the opinion the return of the Israeli hostages must be the starting point for moving forward. Gali notes the war on Gaza has an aspect of revenge which is not doing any good for Israel.
The documentary avoids polemics and tells the story of the Tibon’s daring rescue and the helplessness and sense of abandonment experienced by the residents of Nahal Oz Kibbutz. Do we leave the documentary as having done its job admirably?
Whether the extreme reaction of Israel to 7October2023 and its ensuing global condemnation should have been dealt with in the documentary is a fruitless discussion and better left for another documentary. Its imprint of brutality, fanaticism and military ineptitude made their mark.
It also becomes clear watching the documentary there are multiple roads between countries, religions and citizens. As the hostages have not been fully returned the dividing roads expand daily.
You may watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcAf07EN-bQ
Directed by Barry Avrich.
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Documentary Review Rating 83/100.
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