Tensions flare inside and outside TIFF theatre showing Oct. 7 documentary

TORONTO — Tensions flared both inside and outside a Toronto International Film Festival screening of a documentary about a retired Israeli general’s Oct. 7 rescue mission, with protesters clashing on nearby streets and audience members booing during a Q-and-A that brought up Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Police on bicycles and horses corralled the crowd gathered on Tuesday outside Roy Thomson Hall, where “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” directed by Montreal’s Barry Avrich, was premiering.

Meanwhile, journalists covering a nearby red carpet had to pass through multiple layers of security before speaking to the team behind the film, which chronicles retired Israeli general Noam Tibon’s effort to rescue his family during the 2023 Hamas attacks, when 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted.

The film drew multiple standing ovations inside the theatre, including one for Tibon when he joined a post-screening Q-and-A.

But the mood shifted when moderator Lisa LaFlamme noted Israel’s “overwhelming use of force” in response to the attacks, saying it had resulted in an estimated 64,000 Palestinian deaths. The comment was met with boos, and some audience members shouted “check your facts” to LaFlamme.

Avrich urged the crowd to settle down before LaFlamme asked Tibon’s wife, Gali, to expand on a moment in the film where she calls for change in Israel.

“The war on Gaza should have stopped a long time ago and it could have stopped a time long ago. It would do good to everybody in the region, but especially to Israel. We could have had our hostages back a long time ago,” she said.

When some in the crowd objected to Gali’s response, she said she wasn’t there to give a lecture and that she could only say “many lives could have been saved.”

Asked what future he envisions for his family, Noam Tibon called for an end to the war in Gaza and the release of remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

“I think that two years of war is a long time, and Israel is suffering a lot from this year. I also believe that the main goal right now is to bring the hostages back home,” he said to resounding applause.

“I believe that Israel needs to be strong for many, many years because we need a strong military force and a strong society and a stronger democracy.”

The call for the release of Israeli hostages is also in the film, which focuses largely on Tibon’s rescue mission and the lack of quick military response to the Hamas attacks.

“This is the biggest failure in the history of the state of Israel,” Tibon said during the question period. He called for a formal investigation into the military and the Israeli government to find out how it allowed the events of Oct. 7 to transpire.

“I think that only a formal investigation can bring us to a place where we fully understand what happened and why it happened and the most important issue, how to prevent it in the future.”

Prior to the screening, dozens of protesters and counter-protesters gathered, with pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanting “Free Palestine” outside the theatre, and some calling the documentary “Israeli propaganda,” though they hadn’t seen it.

Protester Emma Chadwick said she doesn’t support the documentary but she’s glad that its screening has mobilized antiwar activists.

“I feel that in the face of governmental — and other groups such as TIFF, people with high profiles — in the face of their inaction, I feel that what we have is our own action,” she said. “The actions, the protests, the time that we spend raising and raising the issue, as the genocide continues.”

The largest professional organization of scholars studying genocide issued a resolution last week saying Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The United Nations and many western countries have said only a court can rule on whether the crime has been committed. A case against Israel is before the United Nations’ highest court.

Last month, TIFF said it pulled the film from its lineup due to security concerns and rights issues, prompting criticism from politicians, Jewish organizations and entertainment industry figures.

The festival reinstated the film days later, pledging clearer communication around its programming decisions.

At the counter-protest on Wednesday, demonstrator Lesley Shapero said she showed up to support Israel, where she lived for many years. She declined to comment on the pro-Palestinian protesters’ message.

“There’s nothing to talk about the other side. They just spout and they’re horrible,” she said, saying that people should learn “the truth.”

“The truth is that we were attacked on the 7th of October. Hamas came and attacked Israel. That’s the truth. There is no other truth,” Shapero said.

Avrich’s message in promoting the film is that it’s not political.

“I focused 100 per cent on Noam’s story and saving his family. That’s what I was focused on, making the film. There’s lots of political documentaries out there. There’s lots of politics everywhere. That’s just not what this film’s about,” he said on the red carpet, which wasn’t co-ordinated by TIFF but by an outside PR agency.

Tibon said he hopes people see the universal story in the film.

“I think it’s an international story about what is really important in our life,” he said ahead of the screening. “Basically the most important issue in our life is our family and on that chaotic day, my wife and I took a journey and used everything that we have. I used all my skills, all my knowledge, all my experience to save my family, and to do my duty as a father, as a grandfather,” he said.

Several films by Palestinian filmmakers are also showing at TIFF, including the historical drama “Palestine 36,” which transports audiences to the 1930s, when the territory was under British control, before the creation of the state of Israel, and “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” about a Palestinian girl who died after being trapped in a car under Israeli military fire.

Since Israel launched its offensive following the massacre on Oct. 7, more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said last week. The ministry doesn’t say how many of those killed in the war were militants or civilians, but says women and children make up around half the dead.

— With files from Maan Alhmidi, Cassidy McMackon and The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2025.

Alex Nino Gheciu and Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press