Israeli Director Guy Nattiv on His Efforts to Highlight the Civilians Ensnared in a “Disastrous F***-Up”

“God, it’s fucking crazy,” Guy Nattiv said with exasperation when we connected by phone this week, in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel that has resulted in the deaths and hostage-taking of hundreds of Israelis. “This is a holocaust.”

Nattiv, the first Israeli filmmaker to ever win an Oscar — he won best live action short for 2018’s Skin — and the director of the 2023 film Golda, which chronicles Golda Meir’s response to the 1973 surprise attack on Israel that resulted in the Yom Kippur War, has lived in the United States for the past decade, since he met the woman who would become his wife, the actress-filmmaker Jaime Ray Newman. But he remains deeply connected to Israel, where many of his family members and friends still reside. And when Hamas attacked Israel last week, he instinctively decided that he should use his Instagram platform as a “shofar” — a horn, of sorts, that Jews blow on Rosh Hashanah — to help get the word out about his countrymen who have been taken hostage or are missing. “A lot of people there are like, ‘Please, Guy, post that my sister is missing’ and ‘my kid is missing’ and ‘my wife is missing,'” he says. “They say, ‘Please post about it so the world can hear and help us!'”

In the days since the attack, much of Israel and Hollywood has turned to Nattiv’s Instagram account for the latest information on what is happening in Israel. His grassroots efforts have been particularly appreciated given the ineffectiveness of the Israeli government to share that same information, he says. But, he acknowledges, it has also taken a toll on him, as he reviews the disturbing and heinous graphic content that he has been sent before determining what he can conscionably share with the world.

During our conversation, he spoke about why he feels he must continue his work on Instagram, what lessons he feels the Yom Kippur War should provide for the current Israeli leadership, how he feels about the response to the new war from his fellow denizens of Hollywood, and much more.

Where and how are your family members in Israel?

My family is in the center of Israel. A few of my family members were drafted [into the military and sent] to the north and to the south. I’m trying to bring other members of my family to the states for the next two weeks so they can have a breather — we have babies and we have kids.

How did you first hear that Israel was under attack? And how did you process it?

It was Friday night. We were at dinner with a friend of mine, Florian Zeller, the director of The Father and The Son, and we had a beautiful meal with him, his wife and their kid, and some filmmakers from France. Suddenly I started getting text messages, “It’s another Golda!” and “Golda 2!” I was like, “What?!” “They’re doing Yom Kippur 2!” And I was like, “Are you fucking with me?” So I turned on the news and I saw that Hamas had just entered Israel at 6 o’clock in the morning without any resistance, and 100 militants had started butchering Israelis. I started getting more messages, “They’re butchering our people! They’re butchering our villages, our kibbutzes!” I told Florian, “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go home [in L.A.]. I’ve got to start dealing with this.” And I started a war room to deal with it here, so that people could understand exactly what was going on.

Who is sending you stuff to post and why?

Many people contacted me because they feel that the world needs to know what’s going on. In Israel, people know me because of the Oscar and Golda, and so they thought that I might be able to help this go viral. I’ll give you an example. Did you hear about the grandmother who was sitting in her house when a terrorist came — she was the first one to get hit — and he killed her, took her phone and posted her on her Facebook? That’s how her family members heard about it. So her grandson, who lives in Canada, direct messaged me via Instagram and said, “My grandmother just died like that and I want the whole world to see what’s going on,” so I posted it. Another one: A man’s family was kidnapped into Gaza, including his two little girls, who are my daughters’ age, and he direct messaged me. And then all the missing people — I posted all of those names, which I got from the family members. It’s not even from the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] or the government, because the government was dysfunctional. The Yom Kippur debacle was basically 10 percent of what’s happened here.

I know it’s still early to talk about this and it’s not the main concern right now, but how do you think this happened?

Look, I’m not a military expert, but I can just tell you what I’ve heard from army personnel and from people who are starting to deal with this. I think that because [Israeli prime minister] Benjamin Netanyahu was so busy with the judicial system and his own private issues [Netanyahu has greatly divided Israel by trying to enact major judicial reforms while facing accusations of corruption] and had sent a lot of troops to guard the illegal settlers in Judea and Samaria in the West Bank [Netanyahu has encouraged Israeli settlement expansion in disputed territories], he was asleep about Gaza on a holiday [Hamas attacked on Simchat Torah, which also fell on the sabbath]. Israel in 2023 is like a cyber-country, but we didn’t even hear or follow any signs that Hamas was planning an attack?! People say it was being planned months ahead, maybe even a year ahead. It’s a debacle for everyone — the intelligence community, Bibi [Netanyahu’s nickname], his ministers, the minister of defense. It is a complete, disastrous fuck-up. But I think it all comes back to Benjamin Netanyahu focusing on the judicial system and the high court.

The people who are contacting you about their murdered or missing relatives — are they at the point yet where they are expressing blame?

Not yet. They’re mourning their loved ones. And babies and kids are still being held captive. So when you’re mourning, you don’t have the energy to deal with the debacle yet. With the Vietnam War, it took a while until people thought about what the fuck happened there. I think there will be a huge shake-up, a huge political earthquake, after this war is over. A lot of heads are going to fly.

There’s a great desire among many to go into Gaza, but Hamas is now threatening to kill hostages if Israel does. What do you hear from the relatives of people who have been kidnapped or are missing about how they would like Israel to respond?

There are a lot of different voices on that. A lot of them want to exchange prisoners; a lot of them don’t know what to say or what to do; and a lot of them say you need to just destroy Hamas, you cannot give them any reward [such as prisoner exchanges], because these are monsters — this is [like] ISIS, they’re not human beings. But we all know that once IDF puts a foot on the ground in Gaza, there will be a lot of executions. But you heard Biden — he said, “Do not fuck with Israel because you are fucking with us.” I respect that. That is leadership.

In preparation for your film Golda, you studied how Golda Meir responded to the surprise attack in 1973. Are there lessons from then that Netanyahu should consider, in terms of what to do or what not to do now?

I think right now there’s no comparison. The Yom Kippur War was the biggest debacle Israel had ever had, and we all thought that we learned the lessons from that — that’s what the movie speaks about. But this one is so huge that I think we haven’t learned anything. It’s like waking up to a nightmare, and no one knows what to do yet. We are still in shock. First of all, we have to mourn the dead and bury our loved ones, and this is something that will take days because we have more than 1,200 slaughtered people. And then you have to supply the Holocaust survivors and others who are captive with their medicine — a lot of them need heart medications and pills — through the Red Cross. There are so many things to do. And in the meantime, you need to make sure that Hezbollah is not attacking us from the north and creating another front.

How do you feel about the way that people in Hollywood have reacted to this crisis? Have you been impressed or disappointed?

I’m getting tons of private messages from people in Hollywood — tons. Some are vocal and have the guts to publicly support Israel, and some do not because they don’t want to lose followers or they don’t think the same. But I want to hear people more vocal about what’s going on. It’s like what Amy Schumer wrote, you don’t have to be anti-Palestinian in order to support Israel right now; you can support Palestinians and their right to live in their own country — a two-state solution — and still post something against this massacre. Edgar Ramirez, who is not Jewish, posted “Am Yisrael Chai” [Hebrew for “The People of Israel Live”]. Jessica Chastain wrote, “Be a fucking human when thinking about what happened this morning in Israel.” Bono, in a U2 concert, dedicated a song to Israel. So there are many people who have done the right thing, but there are also many people who have disappointed me. I’m not going to out people who have disappointed me, but there are some, I’m not going to lie.

What, in your view, would be the most helpful response from high-profile people who haven’t yet stated anything?

Just post one thing: “I Stand with Israel.” Show that you understand what we are going through. You know, Israelis and Jews are part of Hollywood, we are part of your industry, so show us your solidarity, just like you do with Ukraine. That’s what we need. We don’t need anything else. It’s acknowledging the atrocity. This is the worst massacre that Jews — not only Israelis, but Jews — have had since the Holocaust. In one day, 1,200 people were slaughtered. In one day! Massacred. We need to acknowledge this. This was not just an operation or a conflict. This was an atrocity. This was a holocaust. And people need to acknowledge this, even if they’re not Jewish. I have Palestinian friends in Hollywood. I am pro-Palestine. I am pro-free Palestine. I’m a lefty, I’m not a conservative. I’ve always supported the Palestinian people, and my friends know that. But I wish also for my Palestinian friends to support Israel and show that Hamas is not a legitimate group of people, they are animals.

Are there things that everyday Americans can do to be supportive of Israel at this time?

Yes. I would love for people to donate financial aid to Israelis who lost their homes and families. Even just one shekel [the Israeli currency], it doesn’t matter how much. I encourage people to do this through OneFamilyTogether.org.

What do you think happens next?

Who knows? I hope that Hamas will collapse, that we will clean the Gaza Strip from weapons and terror and that we’ll give these people, who have lived under oppression, the freedom to choose how to live. And, of course, that we will bring back our loved ones.

Lastly, I know that you’re thinking about how this crisis is affecting everyone else, but because you are sort of the middle man you are seeing everything, including a lot of disturbing and upsetting stuff, some that is too gruesome for you to even share with others. How are you holding up?

I’m trying to meditate. I don’t know yet how it will affect me — I am seeing horrible images — but it will affect me eventually, and I will need a lot of therapy. A lot.

Interview edited for length and clarity.