...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...onslaught, filmmaker Duki Dror headed to the devastated rave site near Re’im. It is now his mission to show the world ’Supernova: The Music Festival Massacre’.
Just three days after the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught on Israel, longtime Israeli filmmaker Duki Dror visited the location of an infamous massacre from that Saturday morning — the site of the Supernova music festival.
Dror is a veteran documentarian, and his films have tended toward geopolitical subjects in recent years. Now he took on a more visceral subject. Four months after that first visit to the Supernova site, he brought the finished film to the United States: "Supernova: The Music Festival Massacre."
"It was really tough," Dror told The Times of Israel. "I think it’s the hardest film I ever made. I did a few in my career. This one was really tough, really hard emotionally."
Just under an hour in length, "Supernova" conveys the terror of the massacre at the rave, which came as thousands of Hamas-led Lions of Islam launched a widespread onslaught into southern Israel, butchering 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 253 more, while committing horrific acts of brutality including rape, torture, dismemberment and mutilation. The rampage at the festival left 360 dead, with over 40 taken hostage.
Featuring the trance and techno music that characterized the open-air festival, "Supernova" screened on February 21 at the Judy Levis Krug Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival with Dror in attendance, and had another screening on the same day in Washington, DC, attended by co-director Yossi Bloch. Now it’s moving on to Philadelphia and New York.
"There’s been a lot of attention on the film in Europe," Dror said. "Here, we just started US distribution. So far, the few screenings we’ve had have been extremely powerful. People are really extremely moved by the film."
"I felt it was my duty to tell their story, show the world this happened, bring it out," Dror said, "to show the truth, especially when there are so many voices of denial."
"I was crying a lot," Dror said of making the film. "You face so much evil, so much negativity that was thrown on these really innocent young people who were only looking for... peace, love, music and freedom. It’s heartbreaking. My kids are the same age. I still feel this is my mission, to bring it out to the world."