It is the last photo of a hero. As everyone else in the shelter ducked ahead of an attack by terrorists on October 7, off-duty British-Israeli soldier Aner Shapiro stood by the entrance armed only with a broken beer bottle. The photo was grabbed by accident by another person in the shelter as they desperately tried to call emergency services for help.
When the terrorists threw a grenade in, Aner threw it out. They threw another in, again he threw it out. Seven times, over 44 minutes, Aner single-handedly fought off armed terrorists. He was killed on their eighth attempt. Four people from the shelter were kidnapped – including Aner’s best friend Hersh Goldberg-Polin who was murdered in Gaza a few weeks ago – and only seven of 29 made it home.
Aner’s heroism is just one of the incredible stories of bravery and tragedy depicted in a new BBC documentary Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again which will air on Thursday night on BBC2 and on BBC iPlayer.
Aner Shapiro and Hersh Goldberg Polin
Over 90 minutes, using footage mainly taken either by people at the Nova festival or found on Hamas Go Pros, the audience gets a horrifying insight into what it was like for the young partygoers who went from the euphoria of dance to the horror of running for their lives.
Eliya and Ziv, two victims of the Nova festival
The film had its official launch on Tuesday night at JW3 and for a brief time, there was a ceasefire between the warring British Jewish community and the BBC. The Jewish community venue in North London was chosen for security with four guards outside the heavy gates and guests asked to bring identification.
That this wasn’t just any launch could be seen in the calibre of guests including Howard Jacobson and Jason Isaacs and Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s chief content officer. The film has been partly financed by the BBC’s documentary Storyville strand and produced by a host of British Jewish creators including Storyville’s Lucy Kon, and independent producers Leo Pearlman and Sheldon Lazarus.
Ms Moore, who was introduced to hostage families at a reception before the event, announced the film by saying: “I know it’s been an incredibly tough year, an incredibly difficult year for so many of you in this room. And, of course, the anniversary of the seventh of October is coming up and I know what an impact this year has had on so many people. I hope this film is a demonstration of the BBC commitment to telling stories fearlessly and fairly in pursuit of the truth.” Her appearance at the event was a sign that Jewish complaints have been heard.
There was silence as the touching film finished – punctuated only by the sound of tears – before a huge standing ovation for some of the contributors who flew to London.
They included Aner’s father Moshe, Ziv Abus who was in the same shelter as Anir and whose fiancé Eliyah Cohen is still a hostage, Noam Mazal Ben-David whose boyfriend was killed as they hid in a rubbish skip and Kfir Hod whose family only learned the full story of how he escaped when they watched the film for the first time.
Yariv started working on the film on October 8 when he was given permission to head to the Nova site. The producers went through thousands of hours of film, focusing on Nova characters who had filmed themselves and their friends as they attempted to escape.
“It was extraordinary how many of them documented this situation,’ Yariv tells the JC. ‘But this is a very generational story. It will remain the story of not only those people who went to the festival but their friends, their friends of friends and their family members. When you meet someone in their 20s in Israel, you see the trauma in their eyes. So the choice for us was about finding the ones that are mentally capable to stand in front of the camera, have the courage to tell their story and share their experience.”
There appeared to be a new controversy a few hours after the launch, perhaps reflecting some discussions during the process, when an interview with Yariv in the Hollywood Reporter reported him saying BBC had asked him not to describe Hamas a terrorist organisation if he wanted it to air. ‘It was a price I was willing to pay so that the British public will be able to see these atrocities and decide if this is a terrorist organisation or not.”
A screenshot from the Storyville documentary
However the word terrorist will be seen scores of times during the documentary as not only to many of the contributors use it but a title in the film says: "The IDF says that more than 3000 terrorists breached the 40 mile-long border in around 30 places”
In a statement, a BBC spokesman said: “The BBC Storyville film shows in unsparing detail the way in which Hamas set out to slaughter as many people as possible at a music festival on October 7th. It is entirely focused on their stories, told in their own words without commentary, and their descriptions of Hamas as a terrorist organisation have of course not been changed.”
Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again will be on BBC2 on Thursday September 26 at 9pm and on BBC iPlayer.
