‘I Don’t Characterize the Film as Political’

After garnering the Toronto Film Festival People’s Choice Documentary Award last month, Barry Avrich’s feature doc “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue” launched theatrically in 81 movie theaters across North America on Friday. The release qualifies the doc for Oscar consideration.

The doc, which follows grandfather and retired Israeli general Noam Tibon as he rescues his family from Hamas terrorists invading their home during the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, garnered a significant amount of press in August when TIFF pulled the film from its lineup. Two days later, on August 14, the fest reversed its decision and re-invited the doc to screen as an official selection at the 50th annual fest.

“There’s no such thing as bad publicity but you (have to) balance that with the stress and the emotion of those 72 hours of working to get the film back into the film festival,” Avrich told Variety the day before his film opened in theaters. “Ultimately, I think if (the publicity) helps this film find a wider audience and if streamers are open to taking it, then it was all worth it for sure.”

When “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue” was dropped from TIFF’s official lineup on Aug. 12 due to “safety, legal, and programming concerns,” the filmmaking team slammed the fest for censorship, saying, “We are shocked and saddened that a venerable film festival has defied its mission and censored its own programming by refusing this film.”

After inviting the doc back to screen as an official selection, TIFF director Cameron Bailey and the documentary’s director Barry Avrich said in a joint statement that “We have worked together to find a resolution to satisfy important safety, legal, and programming concerns. We are pleased to share that ‘The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue’ will be an official TIFF selection at the festival this year, where we believe it will contribute to the vital conversations that film is meant to inspire.

The doc, which retraces Tibon’s ten-hour mission across Israel to save his family, ultimately played to a sold-out Roy Thomson Hall on Sept. 10, where it received a standing ovation.

Avrich hopes that going forward, TIFF will examine its programming philosophy.

“I would never object to the Toronto Film Festival taking films about Gaza or a streamer taking documentaries or scripted films that have a Gaza perspective,” says Avrich. “If you don’t want to watch them then don’t watch them. If there is a takeaway from my film, it is the universality of a family. This family in my film happened to be in Israel. Could I possibly make a film about a family in Gaza? Of course. I’m extraordinarily open-minded about that, as should the public, film festivals and streamers of showing films like these.”

Despite being set against the backdrop of the events of Oct. 7, Avrich insists that “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue” is not a political doc.

“Yes, it was filmed in Israel by Canadians, and it deals with a rescue, but the film does not have a political point of view,” Avrich says. “I always believed that this was going to be an uphill battle until the people saw the film. The majority of people who have seen it walk away and say, ‘We don’t understand the commotion or the characterization of the film as political.”

Forston Consulting is handling the film’s distribution in the U.S., and Cineplex Pictures will release the doc in Canada.

Avrich said that he won’t be surprised if people show up at theaters to protest the film.

“Sadly, the world that we are living in with respect to this film, we are prepared (for protesters),” the director says. “I don’t have an issue with peaceful protests towards government policy, but protesting art, whether it’s in the form of a film or a book, it seems like the beginning of the end for me.”

Although streamers have shied away recently from topical docs, Avrich is hopeful that “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue” will ultimately find a home on a major streaming platform.

“I’m very, very bullish that streamers like Paramount+ and HBO are taking content and are green lighting films that deal with this topic and serve their mandate of debate and discussion.”