‘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

Diana Lodderhose

September 3, 2024 at 11:33 PM·10 min read

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.

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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. She navigates through the horrors etched upon the place and on the faces of the people she meets while encountering the stark reality of the unfolding disaster beyond the fence. Between those who seek revenge and those whose faith in mankind remains unwavering, Dar tries to find her own voice.

Though the story is fictional, it stars non-actors and was shot on-location with a small crew who lived in or were present in the region at the time. To portray the reality of the region, it features a light camera and has mostly improvised dialogue with no constructed sets. Alexander Rodnyansky’s AR Content produces the project with Tamir of Laila Films and Donatella Palmero.

Of Dogs and Men along with Amos Gitai’s Why War, which played out of competition in Venice, have both been scrutinized in the run up to the festival, with some 300 filmmakers and artists signing an open letter to boycott the Israeli films at Venice. Deadline sat down with Rosenberg and Rodnyansky in advance of the film’s Venice premiere to talk about the film and why it’s a project calling for peace rather than one of vengeance.

DEADLINE: Dani, you started making this movie very shortly after the attacks on October 7. Where were you on that day and what led you from that moment to making this film so shortly afterwards?

DANI ROSENBERG: I was just landing in Busan, actually, at around noon of October 7, and opened my phone and didn’t believe what I saw because it happened during a long flight from Dubai. I was supposed to be screening The Vanishing Soldier, the film I made before, at Busan. The Vanishing Soldier is a fictional film, but it also deals with the with the war because it’s about a soldier that escapes the war with Gaza. Suddenly, it felt like fiction crashed into reality and I was shocked. I didn’t know if I could even watch the film at that point because during the time people were actually fighting and dying in the same places I shot the movie.

So, I returned back to Tel Aviv with split emotions, and I saw what was going on only through the television screen. In chaotic moments, I find that film can help me organize reality and also give me a shield from the reality with the camera itself. I wanted to understand what was happening, to be a part of it, and not only through the television screen. I volunteered in a project with directors who did interviews with survivors of the massacre and during that I came to a hotel of survivors and I met a young, 16-year-old girl, whose parents had both been kidnapped. I was amazed by her strength and the way she wanted to fight to return her parents. I was completely devastated at the end of the interview and couldn’t understand how she managed to be so strong, and this is what inspired the story for the film.

DEADLINE: How did you find Ori Avinoam, your lead actor who plays Dar?

ROSENBERG: We had only one day for auditions and the casting director had just a couple of options, but I was lucky that she was one of them. Two days after we cast her, we drove to the area we would shoot. The kibbutz is called Nir Oz — around 200 meters from the border — and it was where the main victims of the massacre on October 7 were from. A quarter of their members were murdered or kidnapped. One out of four people just disappeared.

DEADLINE: How did you get access to this place given it was a military zone. How did they permit you to come in with a film crew and start shooting so close to the aftermath of this deadly event?

ROSENBERG: The first day of shooting went totally wrong because we didn’t have permission and the army kicked us out. The only shot we got that day was when you see Dar approach the military in the beginning of the film. Then we realized we needed someone from the inside to get us in and because we were in contact with the people from the kibbutz, they arranged a kind of invitation for us to come in and help them — but it was still complicated to get access. We needed a lot of people to help from the outskirts. One day we even had to dress like soldiers because we had the military uniform and we had plastic guns, so we looked like officers. It was such a chaotic environment back then. There were so many army units, and no one knew whose unit was whose. It was war — it’s just what you see in the film with thousands and thousands of soldiers everywhere — no civilians. You hear the bombs and the airplanes everywhere. It really was a war zone.

DEADLINE: Are those real bombs that we hear in the movie?

ROSENBERG: Not 100% — I think maybe 50% are real and we added the other 50% in the editing. But it did feel like we were hearing them all the time.

DEADLINE: Alexander, this is a project that seems to fall in line with the kinds of voices you champion and projects you get involved with at AR Content. At what point did you board this project and decided to finance and produce? And what drew you to this film?

RODNYANSKY: The idea for this film was conceived by Dani and his producing partner Itai Tamir, a very resourceful producer. They pitched me this idea in the very beginning of January 2024 and they screened me some footage and I was incredibly impressed. I’ve been working with great filmmakers for years and I watch a lot of movies and read a lot of scripts and it’s not easy to impress me. But I was impressed with this because I saw the idea and I saw the vision. I immediately decided to support them, and we decided to work together. It’s a very guerilla style production with a few people and one actor going into this environment and they needed funding, support and some expertise as well.

It’s extremely important to tell this story and I don’t think it’s easy to find money for Israeli movies these days. But this story is important because it makes a very important statement about peace. This is the story of trauma and while it focuses on the experience of an Israeli girl, it still provides you a contest of the suffering of the people in Gaza who live under the bombing. This film is a call for reconciliation — not for revenge or anything like that. And this is so important.

I saw Dani’s film The Vanishing Soldier in Locarno and that’s where we first met and I liked it because he is a very independently thinking filmmaker with his own style, and that’s what I love more than anything else. I always back the filmmakers, and I love to work with great partners and Dani is a great filmmaker and Itai [Tamir] was an amazing partner to work with. That’s why I decided to be a part of this challenging movie — and I say challenging because every Israeli film today is challenging for obvious reasons.

ROSENBERG: It was a real privilege to work with Alexander because when we met him in January, at that stage we didn’t really know the story of the film. I knew I had a story about a girl that was trying to find her dog but actually trying to find her mother by going to the kibbutz, but I was going to continue her journey after in Tel Aviv. When Alexander saw the footage, he told me: “You have it all — you have the story.” When I looked at it from his perspective, which was so precise, I realized he was right, so I rewrote some scenes. Sometimes you just need someone wise to tell you something that will change the life of a film.

RODNYANSKY: It was clear when looking at their footage that this was a girl whose world had been destroyed. She lost her mother, and everything had been taken away from her. She was, quite literally, alone in the world and she was searching for her only last friend. That was on the screen already. They had the movie — they didn’t need to have political protests on the streets of Tel Aviv — they already had a much more important and universal story, which was easy to relate to across the globe.

DEADLINE: Dani, you use real people in the film living in the kibbutz.

ROSENBERG: Everybody is real. It was important for me to use real people because I couldn’t put into words what these people went through in a script. I felt such profound respect and caution for what they had experienced, and I felt I couldn’t put words in their mouths that were scripted so I thought that maybe we would find the people that are there, connect with them, and put the script together that way. We connected the pieces without actually knowing what the story would be. Maybe if I met different people, the story would have been different.

On the second day of shooting, I met Nathan, the 80-year-old man you see in the film who was one of the people that actually built the kibbutz, and he still believes in peace. When he’s on the roof with Dar, he tells her; “I still believe in peace, I still have hope, we cannot continue this war.” He brought such a profound truth that I could never give the script. They are real people and also the Palestinian man that talks about his family — this is a real conversation that I got with his permission. So, it’s important for me as a director — especially in the year we are living in now and regarding this war — to look at what is true and what is real. It was important for me to be able to say that these are all real people, and this is their life and this is what happened to them in the kibbutz.

You can like the film, you can dislike the film, but you can’t argue with the facts that all of them are real people.

DEADLINE: Dani, how have things changed for you as an Israeli filmmaker since October 7? How has your reality changed and, if at all, your ability to tell stories?

ROSENBERG: I feel really privileged at the moment because I shot this film in the beginning with no money at all and then Alexander joined our small crew and helped us, with our Italian co-producer [Donatella Palermo] to finish the film. So, personally, I had luck with this film. But if I look at the future of Israeli cinema right now, we’re struggling. The government wants to shut down the film funds and there is a struggle for me to tell my stories. The Israeli industry is fighting inside and also outside.

It’s also a problem that some festivals are not taking Israeli films because of the situation. I think Alberto Barbera is a very brave man because he knew that selecting this film [for Venice] would potentially have side effects.

DEADLINE: And there have been side effects. There have been reports of people protesting the inclusion of your film and Amos Gitai’s Why War at Venice in this year. Alexander, we’ve talked before about this happening with Russian filmmakers you’ve worked with since the war in Ukraine began. What are your thoughts on this?

RODNYANSKY: This movie has never been screened anywhere, so people who signed the petition never saw this film and they don’t know what the movie is about. For me, this film is a powerful call for peace and not vengeance. I deeply admire the position of the Venice Film Festival — specifically Alberto Barbera — who, instead of shying away from the controversial issues, chose to embrace them and make the festival a place where all points of view are represented and respected. I believe this is the most mature position and the only way forward for everyone — not just the film community.

DEADLINE: What do you hope that audiences take away from this film?

ROSENBERG: That this cycle of revenge and blood has to end.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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‘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