It could have been the most inspiring true story from October 7 and its aftermath.
Instead, it’s one of the most tragic.
Three hostages held in Gaza – Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim, and Samer Talalka – escaped from their Hamas captors in December 2023 and were shot to death in error by IDF soldiers a few days later. They came so close, against all odds, and were cut down as they approached the IDF patrol shirtless, holding a white cloth with Hebrew words written on it from hot sauce, the only writing material they could find as they hid in abandoned houses.
This heartbreaking story of their escape and death has been turned into a gripping, dramatic movie now playing all over Israel, Stay Forte, directed by Doron Eran and written by Omri Rose and Tomer Almagor.
Stay Forte, which was made using classic prison-break movie tropes, manages to keep some suspense throughout, and the drama is not so much about what they did but how they managed to do it.
The film works hard to draw fully rounded portraits of the characters, so they become real to us, and it celebrates the fact that they escaped their captors and lived their final days thinking they had a chance. Stay Forte is a gritty prison drama where you root for the heroes to break free from their evil jailers at all odds, and the fact that it’s based as much as possible on what is known about the trio’s time in captivity makes it all the more moving.
Most of the detail in the script came from the testimony of a Thai agricultural worker who was kidnapped with them and was released in the first hostage deal after 50 days. For much of the film, we get to know the three hostages when they are held in a dark cell in the tunnels, where they are kept with Chitra (Roy Vongtama), the Thai hostage.
The hostages were very different types. Shamriz (Tomer Machloof), 26, whose character in the film is called Oren, was an engineering student, and Haim (Shahar Tavoch), 28, a drummer for the heavy metal band Persephore, who is named Nadav here, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Talalka (Wael Hamdun), 24, a Bedouin who lived in Hura, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Am, where he worked in the hatchery, and is known in the film as Aleef.
Although all were in shock after being captured, Oren is instantly laser-focused on finding a way out. The guards break his glasses as soon as they throw him into the cell, but he takes a broken piece of glass and immediately begins to map the tunnels as he remembers them, hiding the drawing under his mattress. He conceals his anxiety under a steely mask of determination, and finds himself in the position of calming the very jittery Nadav, still wearing a Metallica T-shirt at the beginning.
Aleef is thrown into a complex predicament: The guards, who revile him because they see him as a collaborator with the Israelis, nevertheless ask him to spy on the others for them. But he doesn’t trust the terrorists and walks a tightrope, agreeing to be their spy but bringing any information he gleans from the captors to his fellow hostages.
Although all the hostages are under almost incomprehensible pressure, they never turn on each other. They occasionally bicker, but they always share their food. One of the most moving scenes is when Aleef takes a single fig the guards gave him and breaks it into four equal parts.
Hamas mind games
STAY FORTE can be difficult to watch, as the Hamas guards play mind games with them, particularly with Oren, lying and telling him that his father has been murdered and that they are charging people money to look at his head. They call Nadav a red devil because of his red hair, and beat the two of them mercilessly and frequently, for no reason.
The film also details their journey, as the IDF fights above ground, and they are moved to houses and different parts of the tunnels. Aleef is forced to listen to Hamas officials celebrating the attack and telling him how it is only the beginning.
In one cinematically effective scene, their captors move them through a ghostly landscape near an abandoned amusement park. Sitting outside, they meet a young girl and an American woman, played by Selma Blair. Blair’s character eventually relates how she was raped, a narrative that mirrors the testimony of released hostage Amit Soussana.
Another American hostage they encounter is played by Judd Hirsch, of Taxi and Ordinary People, who talks about how he came to Israel seeking his roots, and who puts the October 7 attack in historical and biblical perspective, declaring in a quavering voice that he remains optimistic.
While their captors all treat them inhumanely in different ways, when they eventually break out and hide in what they think is an abandoned building, they find a little girl there. She immediately realizes their identity, but they don’t try to harm her, and when her father arrives, she simply leaves with him. Despite everything the three hostages have been through, they don’t express a desire for revenge, only to be saved.
The scenes after their escape are well filmed, and the movie gives a plausible account of how they may have spent their final days.
The three actors in the main roles all give excellent performances and work well together. Machloof, who plays Shamriz, has appeared in Tehran, and he makes Shamriz into a classic hero, always thinking of how he and the others can survive.
Tavoch, as Haim, was memorable playing a nerdy intelligence officer in the Yom Kippur War drama Valley of Tears, and here he brings out Haim’s sweetness, as he consoles himself by playing a phantom drum and tries to keep their spirits up.
Hamdun previously played a Bedouin who hid from terrorists with an Israeli cyclist in One Day in October, and he manages to convey the pressure Talalka is facing from all sides in a low-key, very effective performance.
Stay Forte makes a strong case for us to look closely at this tragedy and not avert our eyes from it, and because the filmmakers created these memorable characters, we can pay tribute to these three very brave and resourceful young men.