Documentary filmed weeks before Oct. 7 essential viewing for elections years later

Filmmaker Jonathan Jakubowicz's documentary "Soul of a Nation," capturing Israel's deep political divisions in the nine months before the Oct. 7 attacks, is being presented as essential viewing ahead of the country's first election since the massacre. The film highlights the intense polarization that gripped Israel, with citizens from opposing political factions more inclined to question a Venezuelan filmmaker about their countrymen than to engage with each other. Jakubowicz, a Venezuelan-born director with Hollywood experience, was prompted to film in Israel after his mother in Tel Aviv described the country's political climate in terms reminiscent of his native Venezuela's descent into ruin. He found a nation convulsed by protests against the government's judicial overhaul plan, with widespread dissent among air force reservists, generals, rabbis, and Nobel laureates. This internal strife, he observed, occurred while Hamas was rehearsing its attack. Filmed through September 2023, the documentary captures conversations on the precipice of a tragedy that would claim approximately 1,200 lives, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. The film's accidental timing imbues every interaction with a profound sense of foreboding, as characters speak on the far side of a line they cannot see. The documentary's release just months before Israel's first election since the attacks serves as a somber reflection, questioning whether the nation has learned anything from its most devastating period.