{"id":49912,"date":"2026-09-25T00:53:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=49912"},"modified":"2026-09-28T12:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T19:06:47","slug":"graphic-doc-on-oct-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2026\/09\/25\/graphic-doc-on-oct-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Graphic doc on Oct. 7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Caution: Story contains graphic descriptions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toronto filmmaker Igal Hecht has made his full-length documentary of the mass atrocities along Israel\u2019s highways on Oct. 7, 2023, free to stream online. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Killing Roads<\/em> is a grotesque film \u2013 and that is high praise in the context of an historical event whose savagery must be seen to be believed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The documentary, which Hecht created in partnership with Israeli cinematographer Lior Cohen, assembles narration from Hecht with first-responder testimony and footage from security cameras and body cameras. Some of the most horrifying images were filmed by the terrorists themselves: bodies burning, civilians shot at point-blank range, cars sprayed with bullets as their occupants attempted to flee, and attackers exultantly praising God while carrying out mass murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Footage shows Nova Festival attendees, fleeing rocket fire, driving into ambushes on the escape routes. In one dash-cam sequence, a car approaches a line of armed terrorists, the windshield shatters, the vehicle veers into another car and comes to a stop. In another scene, a terrorist chases two women across an open area and shoots them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"screenshot
Burned-out vehicles line the roads where Nova Festival attendees sought to escape before being ambushed by armed terrorists who had invaded from Gaza. (screenshot)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The film also preserves the final moments of victims through their own phones and cameras, recordings made seconds before they were killed, desperate final calls to family members, and survivors who describe hiding beneath bodies while terrorists fired into bomb shelters and threw grenades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against this footage are the quieter but still devastating testimonies of grieving families and traumatized first responders. One relative recalls staying on the phone with a wounded loved one while they waited for an ambulance that never came: \u201cAfter two hours, he didn\u2019t answer me anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israelis have an ethical and cultural norm of restraint around public depictions of identifiable bodies and other images that could violate the dignity of the dead or traumatize families. After Oct. 7, however, Israeli authorities and media, in some instances, shifted their approaches. Hecht takes the position that the world needs to see up-close what happened that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Nazi-like atrocities committed by thousands of terrorists from Gaza were being glossed over, minimized or framed through narratives that, in my view, were designed to excuse or explain away the brutality of what had happened,\u201d Hecht told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cI decided that one of the things I could do was make films that bring the facts and the human stories to people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The graphic depictions make The Killing Roads unique among Oct. 7 documentaries, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe that is important because there are moments when you cannot fully understand what happened through sanitized images or second-hand accounts,\u201d said Hecht. \u201cThe film hits you on a visceral level and does not let go. It is also extremely specific. It focuses almost entirely on the atrocities that took place along roads 232 and 34 on that horrific day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The explicit nature of the film prevented Hecht from getting a broadcast deal in Canada, he said, but he chose to maintain the footage and distribute the film independently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a very difficult film to watch,\u201d he admitted, \u201cbut I believe it provides a clear and unfiltered insight into what occurred on Oct. 7 and helps explain why the war in Gaza followed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the documentary contains few references to the global political upheaval around Israel\u2019s responses to Oct. 7, that was a main purpose in making the film, said Hecht. He believes many Canadians are being given incomplete, misleading and incorrect information about Israel\u2019s motivations and actions, as well as Hamas\u2019s strategy and terror infrastructure. He has sharp words for Canada\u2019s government, which continues to support UNRWA, the United Nations agency that operates in Gaza and the West Bank, despite individuals associated with the organization being linked to the October attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDespite knowing that money has been diverted to terrorist activity in the past, both the previous and current Liberal governments continue to send millions of dollars to Gaza,\u201d Hecht said. \u201cThe Canadian foreign ministry\u2019s own website admits that it cannot track the money once it enters Gaza.\u2026 There is a very solid argument to be made that the Liberal government is helping to finance terrorism or, at the very least, knowingly ignoring the fact that Canadian taxpayer money can end up supporting terrorist activity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"screenshot
Filmmaker Igal Hecht reflects inside one of the bomb shelters where Israelis fleeing rockets and terrorists were murdered on Oct. 7, 2023. (screenshot)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Hecht said, The Killing Roads<\/em> is about making sure that what happened on Oct. 7 is never forgotten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhatever someone\u2019s political position may be, the victims deserve to have their stories remembered, and the public deserves access to the evidence and a very clear understanding that no one in Israel wanted to invade Gaza on Oct. 7,\u201d he said. \u201cOn that day, thousands of Arab terrorists and civilians from Gaza invaded Israel through approximately 120 different locations and committed genocidal atrocities, including the burning, murder and rape of Jewish women, children and men. The brutality was deliberate, systematic and horrific, and The Killing Roads<\/em> exists to make sure that what happened that day cannot simply be erased, denied, rewritten or forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hecht, who gets to Vancouver several times a year, will be in town next month for an advance screening of his new documentary, Where Do We Belong?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe film is an intimate documentary following a group of women from Kibbutz Kfar Aza over two-and-a-half years as they navigate grief, survival and the difficult process of rebuilding their lives after losing loved ones in the Oct. 7 attack,\u201d Hecht said. \u201cConnected through a single WhatsApp group, the women find strength in one another as they struggle to rebuild their shattered lives and search for community, belonging and hope in the face of unimaginable loss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hecht is an award-winning filmmaker and the founder of Chutzpa Productions. Since launching the company in 1999, he has produced and directed more than 70 documentaries and television series exploring subjects ranging from human rights and religion, to Israeli society, history and popular culture. His work has been broadcast and screened internationally on platforms and networks including CBC, BBC, Netflix, Prime Video and Documentary Channel, and at festivals including Hot Docs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Killing Roads<\/em> is available to stream at thekillingroads.com\/watch-now<\/a>. Hecht\u2019s new film, Where Do We Belong?<\/em>, is being presented by the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival at the Rothstein Theatre on Oct. 8, 7 p.m. (for ages 19+). For tickets, go to vjff.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caution: Story contains graphic descriptions. Toronto filmmaker Igal Hecht has made his full-length documentary of the mass atrocities along Israel\u2019s highways on Oct. 7, 2023, free to stream online.  The Killing Roads is a grotesque film \u2013 and that is high praise in the context of an historical event whose savagery must be seen to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":49914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[787],"tags":[801,4361,4242,22240,22725,1774,25052,2280,2281,25053],"class_list":["post-49912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-antisemitism","tag-hamas","tag-history","tag-igal-hecht","tag-oct-7","tag-terrorism","tag-the-killing-roads","tag-vancouver-jewish-film-festival","tag-vjff","tag-where-do-we-belong"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49915,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49912\/revisions\/49915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}