‘Of Dogs And Men’ Director Dani Rosenberg & Producer Alexander Rodnaynsky Talk Making The October 7 Drama, The Petition Calling To Boycott Israeli Films & Why Their Project Is “An Important Statement About Peace” — Venice

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: After last year’s October 7 attacks in Israel, local director Dani Rosenberg struggled to make sense of the horrors of the massacre and the ensuing war that would unleash what he describes as “unimaginable suffering, defying comprehension.” Feeling helpless, he decided to throw himself into what he knew best – filmmaking – and began asking himself the daunting question of whether or not these events could be represented or depicted on screen.

At the end of October 2023, Rosenberg, who had previously directed Locarno title The Vanishing Solider, began putting together what would be the beginnings of his next title Of Dogs and Men (Al Klavim Veanashim).

The film, which premieres in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section on September 5, went into production just weeks after October 7, when he and a small crew entered the Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community of hardworking, intellectual and peace-driven people founded by a group of left-wing activists.

The kibbutz was ravaged in the attack with a quarter of its members either murdered or abducted. Rosenberg wrote the film with Itai Tamir and its star Ori Avinoam, who plays 16-year-old Dar who returns to her kibbutz to look for her dog that was lost in the attack on October 7.