On October 7, 2023, a holiday Saturday, citizens of Israel were just waking up when at 6:30 AM missiles started to rain down. It was on this day that Hamas invaded the country, taking over 250 people hostage and killing over a thousand more. It was the country’s deadliest day since Israel’s independence in 1948.

In Our Loves, writer-director Avi Nesher uses an ensemble cast with an interwoven narrative as a way to engage the audience during this tragedy. Each of the characters is dealing with their own personal dramas. One (a commanding Magi Azarzar) faces pressure to introduce her same-sex partner to her mother.  Another (Shalom Michaelshvili) is in the midst of a bitter divorce.  Other characters deal with break ups and heartache.  Nesher quickly, but cleverly, introduces us to each person’s story in the days before their lives are changed, heightening the sense of what is at stake.

The second act of the film is October 7th.  As the characters intersect with one another, the film portrays the scope of the violent attack and the unrelenting trauma. Nesher, for better or worse, stays out of the politics of this act of terrorism, filming emotion up close. What the film may lack in aesthetic it makes up for with heart.

Our Loves is all about perspective.  We all have our own stressors and grievances, but they seem less important in the grand scheme of things when tragedy strikes our community.  It’s then we see what we are really made of.