The scene outside Roy Thomson Hall ahead of the premiere of Oct. 7 movie The Road Between Us. The film has galvanized people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide, even as its story is largely apolitical. Steven Zeitchik Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment The Palestinian-Israeli conflict rippled through the Toronto International Film Festival in surprising, disruptive and important ways Wednesday as a once-canceled film about Oct. 7 made its splashy premiere to nearly 2,000 ticketbuyers amid a small but intense group of protesters. The film at the center of the tumult, Barry Avrich's The Road Between Us, is a largely human-centric and apolitical affair, focusing on one Israeli grandfather's attempt to rescue his family trapped in a Hamas-occupied kibbutz on that fateful day. The grandfather, an even-keeled retired Israeli general named Noam Tibon, recreates the harrowing journey he took as he faced heavy fire and rescued numerous civilians from a murderous fate on the way to his son, daughter-in-law and two toddler granddaughters in the besieged Nahal Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border. Related Stories Movies Israeli Film Industry Leaders Call Growing Boycott "Counterproductive" Movies Director Annemarie Jacir Feels Like She's Already Won an Oscar for 'Palestine 36': "All the Odds Were Against Us" The film culminates as he reaches those granddaughters, who'd been sheltering quietly in a safe room in their home for more than eight hours as terrorists shot at them just outside. "Grandpa's here!" the 3-year-old exclaimed as Tibon reached the room and secured the area. "Family is the most important thing we've got," Noam Tibon told the audience after the screening. "This is worldwide." Earlier, he'd told The Hollywood Reporter that he had been racked by doubt as he navigated numerous gun battles to reach the kibbutz. "I kept thinking 'what if I get there and they're all dead?'" Tibon said. "But then I had to push the thought out of my mind because I wouldn't have been able to go on." Tibon's wife Gali, who accompanied her husband on most of the journey, offered her own incredulity at what occurred. "Two years after Oct. 7, I still don't believe it happened to us," she said. "We are so joyful our family made it through but our hearts are with the families that are grieving." For much of the screening and its aftermath, rousing cheers and heartfelt sniffles could be heard as Tibon and his wife went along on their dangerous and at times tragic solo mission; if one were not aware of the context, it would seem like one of so many crowd pleasing stories of heroism that play among doc and narrative films at this large festival every day. But that context made everything more fraught. The audience welcomed the subjects to the stage after the screening with a nearly three-minute standing ovation, with many in the audience of 1,800 that packed the festival's premiere Roy Thomson Hall vocally pro-Israel, if eminently divided on current Israeli policy. Festival organizers opted to give the proceedings a wider lens - and, perhaps, a counterbalance - by bringing on former CTV chief anchor Lisa LaFlamme to moderate a post-screening panel with filmmakers and subjects. LaFlamme's presence did not go over so well, however, particularly during a moment where she noted that "Israel's response has an aspect of revenge because of the humiliation of that day" and cited the "overwhelming use of force and over 64,000 estimated Palestinian deaths." Loud jeers rained down from various sections of the theater; one festgoer could be heard saying, "You're not here to litigate the war." Before the screening, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey apologized to the audience for how the whole screening situation was initially handled, continuing comments he made to The Globe and Mail earlier in the week that the situation is "something that I know caused a lot of pain and hurt in the Jewish community in particular, and I apologize for that. ... We worked quickly to resolve things with Barry and his team and were able to come to a resolution. But in that time a lot of harm had been done, and a lot of misinformation was out there." The movie was invited, disinvited and eventually reinstated after a widespread outcry over the course of about a week last month. In the end, the film had been given only one screening slot, contrary to TIFF custom of at least two public screenings and one press screening. Organizers have not explained the decision, but given the protests and the scale of security, it became a little clearer why they might want one big event instead of the handful of smaller ones that attend most documentaries. Avrich, who had previously told THR he was unhappy with the decision to reduce the number of screenings, sought a more diplomatic path Wednesday. "What a screeni