A movie is currently being filmed about the heartbreaking deaths of three Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, who were able to escape their captors but who were mistakenly killed by the IDF, the N12 website reported earlier this week.
The movie’s working title is Be Strong.
The three hostages were Yotam Haim, 28; Alon Shamriz, 26; and Samer Talalka, 24. Haim and Shamriz were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, while Talalka, who is from Hura, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Am, where he was working.
The three were shot dead a little over a year ago after they emerged from a building where they had been hiding, waving a white flag and calling to the soldiers in Hebrew.
Three hostages killed by the IDF in Gaza
The movie, which is being filmed in Georgia, is being directed by veteran Israeli director Doron Eran, who has made such movies as God’s Sandbox, Cold Feet, and Betrayal. He is consulting with the hostages’ families to bring their story to the screen.
Haim’s mother, Iris Haim, made headlines after the tragedy by saying that she did not blame the soldiers who killed her son by mistake, saying that she placed the responsibility for the deaths of the three hostages solely on Hamas.
The movie will feature three of Israel’s most promising newcomers in the lead roles.
Shahar Tavoch, who plays Haim, gained attention as a nerdy soldier in an intelligence unit who is the first to realize that an attack is being planned for Yom Kippur in the series Valley of Tears.
Tomer Machloof plays Shamriz. He has appeared in Tehran, Fauda, and Chanshi. Wael Hamdun, who is playing Talalka, can currently be seen in the Yes miniseries One Day in October as a Bedouin who helps hide a Jewish woman during the October 7 massacre.
In addition to the Israeli cast, a role will be played by Selma Blair, the American-Jewish actress best known for Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions, and American Crime Story.
The three hostages represented a cross-section of Israeli society. Haim was a talented heavy metal musician who played drums with the band Persephore. Talalka, part of the Bedouin community, worked at the Nir Am chicken hatchery with his father and brothers. He was the eldest of 10 children. Shamriz was a computer engineering student.
Eran told N12: “To me, the three abductees represent rare courage. The film is intended to immortalize their unimaginable story and to tell the world about the challenges and pain that the citizens of the State of Israel have been facing over the past year.”