Film by Israeli murdered by Hamas on October 7 to be screened

One of the dozens murdered by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7 was filmmaker Yahav Winner. He managed to divert the terrorists’ attention so that his wife, actress and director Shaylee Atary (a niece of singer Gali Atari), could flee with their infant daughter. 

The mother and child survived, after a harrowing ordeal in which they hid for 27 hours. Atary waited in suspense for days until she learned the devastating truth that Winner had been killed. 

The Lev Cinemas chain announced this week that it will be screening his final film, The Boy, a 25-minute movie that was his graduation project from the Minshar School of Art. It looks at life on the kibbutz through the eyes of one young man who cannot turn his back on the sufferings of those around him, including those who live on the other side of the border. It stars Nimrod Peleg and Yoram Toledano and it’s a hauntingly beautiful piece of filmmaking. The price of admission to the film will be NIS 20, and all of the proceeds will go to Winner’s family. 

A beautiful piece of filmmaking

Guy Shani, the CEO of the Lev Cinemas chain, said: “We chose to try and commemorate the work of a talented creator who was taken from us so early, in a way that would honor his memory and work. The film, which was shot in Kfar Aza, was written as a love letter to the kibbutz where he grew up, but precisely with a focus on the impossible reality of living there. It is a gentle drama that deals with the unbearable routine of the repeated rounds of fighting and living under the missile fire. A work whose contemporary relevance and prophetic dimension are particularly chilling.”

In an interview with The New Yorker, Atary said, “The main character is very heartbroken about the fact that he knows people are like him on the other side of the fence.”