12 Hours in October

Is it too soon? When will it ever be the right time? In 12 Hours in October, director Danny A. Abeckaser and screenwriter Kosta Kondilopoulos are among the first to produce a feature-length film about the events of October 7, 2023, in every last chilling detail. We open with a chilling phone call from a little girl calling her mother to tell her she’s scared because Hamas has just killed her father and brother. The mother tries to comfort her while she hides at home.

Cut to 6:29 a.m., as the Nova Music Festival kicks off. A young couple is dancing because they were recently engaged. A married couple is at the festival celebrating the news of their pregnancy. Lastly, another couple goes about their morning in a nearby kibbutz. Alarm bells ring as a massive number of rockets are fired over the festival from the nearby Gaza border. As people take shelter, a large number of Hamas terrorists enter the festival, killing people as they try to leave in their cars. They soon enter the festival grounds, gunning down anyone they see.

Another group moves into the nearby kibbutz, and one by one, they go from home to home, dragging residents out into the street before executing them. We also follow one of the Hamas leaders as he guides his son toward “greatness,” giving him opportunities to become the soldier he knows his son could be, and of course, allowing him to take advantage of the spoils of war.

“Alarm bells ring as a massive number of rockets are fired over the festival from the nearby Gaza border.”

Abeckaser says that he was driven to recount the events of the first 12 hours of October 7, 2023. While the characters are fictional, he strove to be as “real and accurate” as possible, even shooting at the locations where the events occurred. 12 Hours in October was made for posterity — both as a remembrance of those who perished in the attacks and as an educational story told from multiple perspectives, including both sides, in the hope that events like this never happen again. Ultimately, I will leave it to you as to how you perceive these events from a political viewpoint. All I know is I have definite feelings about the story, and I’m against people dying, period!

We’ve all heard about the attacks in the news and on social media. Much like the numerous Holocaust movies and stories we’ve heard over the last 80 years, the film walks us through a variety of horrors from that day: from the hunting of Jews at the music festival — the physical abuse, executions, and hostage-taking — to the invasion of nearby communities. It continues with executions and the burning of the homes of citizens hiding in safe rooms. It’s all there, and if you’re looking for a happily ever after, you’re in for a rude awakening.

For the most part, mission accomplished. You feel the horrors of those 12 hours. Abeckaser tells the right stories, from innocent festivalgoers to military-trained fathers, and to the mothers and children who perish. Before you utter the words, “Yeah, but…,” 12 Hours in October is pretty one-sided, and I’m not blind to the protests that have occurred in the streets and on university campuses in the U.S. That said, I’m neither Jewish nor Palestinian, and even I know this is not how anyone should die. If you want to make a movie about the other side, send it our way, and we’ll review that too.

Is it too soon? Only in the sense that we’re all being forced to take a side and judged on the side we take. Objectivity is now thrown out the window in favor of politics. Ultimately, stories — good or horrific — about the unspeakable atrocities, such as those told in 12 Hours in October, we do to one another need to be told all the time. However, I can’t help but feel it’ll never end. Never forget.