{"id":55408,"date":"2026-02-05T19:49:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=55408"},"modified":"2026-02-05T19:49:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:49:56","slug":"of-dogs-and-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=55408","title":{"rendered":"Of Dogs and Men"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Of Dogs and Men\/Photo: Ziv Berkovich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dani Rosenberg\u2019s film Of Dogs and Men<\/em>, shot and set in the aftermath of the October 7 attack, is striking in its capacity for compassion. The impact and trauma of the attack and ensuing war in Gaza are almost beyond comprehension, and in the years to come will certainly be the focus of both documentary and feature films. Powerful and evocative, Rosenberg\u2019s film, situated between the two genres, and shot in November 2023, in the midst of the nightmare, stands out as a unique testimony in its production and its message.<\/p>\n

The film sets a fictional character, 16-year-old Dar (Ori Avinoam), within the setting of Kibbutz Nir Oz and its environs near the border with Gaza. The kibbutz was devastated by the October 7 attack, a quarter of its members were murdered or taken hostage. Dar\u2019s narrative trajectory is fictional \u2013 she leaves the hotel in Eilat where evacuees were settled, returning to the kibbutz to search for her lost dog Shula, and in hopes of finding more information about her mother, who is missing. The film follows Dar on her search, augmented by voice over selections from her mother\u2019s diaries, which provide a sense of her life on the kibbutz.<\/p>\n

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Of Dogs and Men\/Photo courtesy of PR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Employing a light camera and small crew, the film has no constructed sets and features non-actors who appear as themselves. The dialogue is mostly improvised, as the fictional Dar encounters kibbutz members and others along her search. These conversations are authentic, reflecting the thoughts and feelings of those who survived the massacre in its immediate aftermath. Most striking is Dar\u2019s conversation with octogenarian Natan Bahat, one of Kibbutz Nir Oz\u2019s founders, and the first person to return to live in the kibbutz. Standing on the roof of a ravaged house, looking out towards Gaza, where the bombs are falling, he tells Dar of his friend in Gaza, Jamal, saying, \u201cI am certain that he wants peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Dar looks for her dog, the devastation of the attack is evident everywhere, its magnitude and extent are horrifying. This is amplified by the use of existing footage from the news and social media, which Dar views on her phone. The images of Israelis taken hostage, which are both familiar and painful to view, are accompanied by images of the death and destruction in Gaza. These images are presented without comment, as Dar, like any 16-year-old, scrolls through her phone. Yet the film\u2019s message is clear \u2013 war does not spare anyone, on both sides of the conflict, innocent lives are destroyed. When Dar catches a ride with journalists, she hears their conversation with a Palestinian lawyer, who tells them, in a voice broken by grief, \u201cI lost more than twenty people of my close family.\u201d Perhaps Nora Lifschitz, who set out on October 8th to rescue animals left adrift by the war, sums it up best, \u201cThere\u2019s no creature more awful, more cruel, than human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ori Avinoam imbues the character of Dar with a sensitive poignancy and resilience. Alone amid the chaos of war, she claims her agency, choosing action despite her fear and sorrow. In a beautiful, animated segment, Shula the dog runs after a truck carrying hostages to Gaza, and is found by a Palestinian boy. In Dar\u2019s dream or fantasy, with bombs falling all around, the boy is comforted by the dog\u2019s presence. Struggling with her own loss, Dar can still feel empathy and compassion for someone on the other side of the conflict.<\/p>\n

Of Dogs and Men<\/em><\/p>\n

Director: Dani Rosenberg; Screenplay: Rosenberg, Ori Avinoam and Itai Tamir; Cinematography: Ziv Berkovich; Editor: Nili Feller; Music: Yuval Semo; Cast: Ori Avinoam as Dar, As themselves: Natan Bahat, Yamit Avital from Kibbutz Nir Oz, Nora Lifschitz who rescued animals from the area on October 8, 2023<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dani Rosenberg\u2019s film Of Dogs and Men, shot and set in the aftermath of the October 7 attack, is striking in its capacity for compassion. The impact and trauma of the attack and ensuing war in Gaza are almost beyond comprehension, and in the years to come will certainly be the focus of both documentary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":55409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[657,96,658,38,659],"class_list":["post-55408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-docudrama","tag-film","tag-gaza","tag-israel","tag-october-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55411,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55408\/revisions\/55411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}