Israel & Gaza: Into The Abyss

This deeply affecting film follows a small number of Gazans and Israelis through the most dramatic and tragic year of their lives. Using personal and previously unseen footage, it tells the story of the war in Gaza and the October 7 attacks through deeply emotional stories from both sides of the conflict.

In Gaza, the film follows three individuals from reaction to the October 7th attacks to the start of the bombing by the Israeli military and to the loss of family members that all three suffer. In Israel, we witness footage of the Israeli characters, as they and their family members are attacked by Hamas on October 7th and then follow their stories through the year.

Gali, her husband and three of her children were at home in their kibbutz as Hamas broke through the Gazan border fence. Its fighters entered the compound before filming themselves breaking into her house and shooting through the security room door that she and her family were hiding behind. They killed her teenage daughter. Hamas record the ordeal of her family as they huddle together on the floor not knowing their fate. Bat-Sheva tells the film about her husband being shot and how their whole family was kidnapped and taken towards Gaza. Bat-Sheva escapes with her two young daughters but is helpless as her 12-year-old son and husband are taken across the border.

In Gaza, Ibrahim tells of his foreboding as he sees people celebrating the Hamas attacks: “Like everyone in Gaza, I live under siege - continual wars and invasions. We live a life of humiliation. Everything is hard. It was natural for people to be happy. But in my head, I knew we were heading towards the abyss.” The commercial photographer starts filming the devastating bombing raids in his part of northern Gaza. Before October 7th, he worked on fashion shoots and advertisements. Soon it is he and his family who are being pulled from the rubble of their house. Ibrahim and his many young cousins are filmed as they arrive at hospital. Eleven of his family were killed, including his two-year-old cousin Mila. The Head Surgeon at the hospital, Dr Al Ran, is coping with a flood of casualties when he is filmed being told his own family members have been killed in an air raid.

A homeless Ibrahim takes refuge at the hospital. He films, as it is attacked by the Israeli military, which has said Hamas was firing from its buildings. The hospital is shelled and wrecked. The hospital closes and Dr El Ran moves to work at another but is arrested and held in Israel. He tells us about his 45-day ordeal before being released without charge.

Agam was one of the 251 Israeli hostages taken to Gaza on October 7th. She was held by Hamas in tunnels with her mother and two young brothers, moving to avoid detection and meeting other hostages who told her about physical and sexual abuse. Ghada is a young woman who dreams of running her own solar panel business. Displaced in northern Gaza, her family were forced out of their home by a military operation and then displaced a further fifteen times. She films herself, as she and her family struggle to find enough food, and then her grief when her father and brother are killed by a bomb. She is trapped in a cycle of bombing and displacement that shows no sign of ending. For the Israelis, who still have family members held hostage in Gaza, there is no end either, not knowing if their loved ones are alive or dead.

This is a film about individuals, but it adds up to a devastating portrait of the conflict as a whole and a profound look at the cycle of violence and the tragedy of Israelis and Palestinians. As Agam says after her release: “I thought in another universe we might live together. The opportunity is gone.”

Credits:
Filmed, Directed and Produced by Robin Barnwell
Producer: Toby Fitzpatrick
Editor: Guy Creasey

Gaza Producers: Fatma Hassona, Osama Al-Ashi, Youssef Al-Saifi
Israel Producer: Oren Rosenfeld at Holyland Productions
Executive Producer: Darren Kemp