Toronto Film Fest Erupts in Controversy: Anti-Israel Protests Precede Doc Premiere

Hello there, I’m Jordan Collins, and I’ll be your guide through this rather complicated story. I suppose I can break it down for you, but try to keep up. The Toronto International Film Festival, a major stop on the road to the Oscars, recently found itself at the center of a heated controversy. It all started when the festival initially blocked a documentary about the Hamas terror attacks against Israel, titled “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue.”

The film, directed by Barry Avrich, tells the story of retired Israel Defense Forces General Noam Tibon’s heroic efforts to rescue his family from a kibbutz near the Gaza border during the Hamas attacks. However, the festival claimed that the filmmakers did not secure permission from Hamas to use livestreamed body-cam footage from the terrorist group’s attackers, which seemed like a dubious reason to many.

After widespread backlash, TIFF relented and reinstated the documentary to its lineup, giving it a single screening at Roy Thomson Hall in downtown Toronto. Introducing the film, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey took the stage to scattered boos from the crowd. Bailey accepted sole responsibility for scrapping the movie from the 2025 schedule in front of a 2,000-strong audience. “I want to apologize, especially to the Jewish community, for mistakes that I made in the lead up to this day,” he said. “Today’s screening is an important one, and I ask each one of you here to join in a collective act of simply watching a film together with openness and respect.”

The premiere was not without its challenges, as large, vocal protests broke out on opposite sides of Simcoe Street outside – both pro and anti-Israel. The Palestine faction held a large banner reading, “Israel: The greatest shame of the Jewish people.” Many on the opposite end, in support of Israel, waved specially made flags that were half Canadian and half Israeli. The 50-year-old festival, not accustomed to such large protests, had to deploy an atypically hefty security force, with at least 20 police officers patrolling outside the theater before the screening began.

One shouting protester appeared to be arrested, and every audience member was patted down – a practice that did not occur at films starring A-Listers such as Daniel Craig, Matthew McConaughey, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Sydney Sweeney. There were several officers stationed at the foot of the stage, and patrons had to present the guards their headphones, wallets, and any other small objects in their pockets. Once inside, cops were stationed on every floor of the three-level theater.

The powerful film, which recounts Tibon’s efforts to save his son, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters who were barricaded in a safe room in their Nahal Oz kibbutz home, went uninterrupted once the lights went down – except by audible tears. The film is critical of the Israeli government, saying warnings of a Hamas attack went unheeded. “They told us a butterfly couldn’t get through this fence,” Tibon’s son Amir’s wife Miri says in the doc. “And we believed it.”

Avrich insists his documentary about the terrorist attack that resulted in the death of 1,200 Israelis and the taking of 251 hostages is not a movie with an agenda. “Please watch the film and then decide whether this film is political,” he said after the premiere. “This film is wrapped in the flag of a family.” When Tibon took the stage after the end credits, the general received a long standing ovation.

Hopefully that wasn’t too complicated.

Sources: Celebrity Storm and New York Post
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed