By: Elisa D’Amico
TRIGGER WARNING: This article examins Screams Before Silence, a documentary that includes graphic and detailed accounts of violence, sexual assault, torture, murder, and terrorism. The film specifically focuses on the surprise October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas. Because of the subject matter being discussed, reading this article or viewing this film may be particularly distressing for individuals who have experienced trauma or violence, or for anyone sensitive to these subjects. Please proceed with caution.
Screams Before Silence, Sheryl Sandberg’s newest documentary (directed by Anat Stalinsky) chronicles the October 7, 2023 surprise attack on Israeli military and civilian targets by Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist militant organization. The film focuses on Hamas’s barbaric use of extreme sexual violence against innocent humans as a weapon of war, predominately at the Nova Music Festival in Re’im, in the Negev desert. The Nova massacre has been described as the largest terror attack in the history of Israel and the most horrific Israeli civilian massacre ever.
As a young Jewish woman who is a music and music festival-lover, Screams Before Silence hit excruciatingly hard and way too close to home. Ever since I saw the film, it has been replaying on a loop in my mind. Each time it begins, my heart skips a beat. And when it ends, my heart breaks into a million more pieces. On a beautiful Saturday morning in Northwestern Israel, a group of joyful, innocent people were smiling and dancing their hearts out together. They had no idea that a few minutes later they would be running for their lives, hunted by Hamas militants for hours, and hours.
As the sun rose on October 7, 2023, Hamas (a Palestinian Islamist militant organization) launched a large-scale and coordinated surprise attack on Israel on 7+ locations in Israel. This marked the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Artifex was the last DJ to play in the Tribe of Nova festival on October 7th, just before it was attacked. And this track was the very last song that played at Nova:
DOWNLOAD>> Clear Test Signal (Artifex Remix – Nova Tribute)
This song will forever be the Nova Angels’ last dance – interrupted before it finished, like the lives of those beautiful souls lost on October 7th.
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It’s dedicated to them and to all others whose lives were forever changed on that morning. It will also be a strong reminder for us to always choose life, love, and keep dancing forever!
– bandcamp.com
Hamas launched this barbaric attack simultaneously in 7+ locations, each one carefully selected to cause the most harm to Israeli civilians. The extreme terrorist organization didn’t try to hide. Instead, it used social media propaganda to broadcast and boast about the attacks, sharing videos and photographs of unfathomable violence. Most of the images Hamas chose to circulate online focused on its abductions of around 250 Israelis (including 30 children). Hamas took these people as hostages to different unknown locations in the Gaza strip. Videos showed bloody, beaten Israelis being held down and dragged away by men who were smiling and cheering. Other videos showed Hamas militants celebrating while riding trucks full of the bodies of dead Israelis through the streets of Gaza. Screams Before Silence dispels social media propaganda and shows the truth about what happened on October 7, 2023 by listening to firsthand accounts from survivors, former hostages, and first responders and studying evidence of the barbaric violence Hamas employed against its victims.
As if violently murdering and kidnapping innocent humans wasn’t evil enough, Hamas deliberately used extreme sexual violence to rape, torture, and humiliate Israeli women, and in some cases children. Survivors have spoken out and evidence has been collected to support their stories about how Islamic militants not only carried out but meticulously planned and used unconscionable violence against innocent human beings.
Screams Before Silence uncovers the truth behind a Hamas handbook detailing clear instructions militants had to follow in order to inflict maximum psychological and physical trauma on its victims and particularly its female victims. Individuals who are understandably still dealing with the effects of surviving such a traumatic event overcame their fears and spoke out in this film. Their stories detail the depravity of what they endured, which is – for me at least – beyond comprehension. First responders openly discuss the horrific magnitude of the carnage that Hamas left behind. The film did not – and did not need to – display any of the severely violent images to the audience. The truth is that watching Sandberg’s face react to viewing those images was all anyone needed to see.
This really happened.
This is something for which we must bear witness.
This is something we must continue to talk about.
And this is something that we must never ever forget.
I feel blessed to have been able to screen the film at Temple Beth Am in Pinecrest as part of the Miami Jewish Film Festival alongside my dear (and very Jewish) friend Leigh Pollack. Not only is Leigh also a true music lover – hello she is a songwriter – but she also is the granddaughter of two Holocaust survivors.
This happened to her people. This happened to my people. This happened to the Jewish people. As difficult as it may be for me and Leigh to listen to and watch the pure horror that these beautiful, innocent people had to endure, it is our obligation to bear witness. And it is our responsibility and privilege to be able to do so, and to do our part to ensure that nobody ever has to endure anything like this again. Never again.
Never ever again.
Sandberg considers Screams Before Silence the most important work of her life, and I couldn’t agree with her more. But that’s my opinion and I don’t want you to rely on it. In fact, I am asking – no, pleading – with you to watch this film and decide for yourself.
הלב שלנו שבוי בעזה
Our heart remains in Gaza
