THE ROAD BETWEEN US: THE ULTIMATE RESCUE: 3 ½ STARS. “pulse-racing”
SYNOPSIS: The winner of the People’s Choice Documentary Award at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue” is the story of Noam Tibon a retired Israeli general who, on October 7, 2023, rescued his son Amir, daughter-in-law Gali and their children from a Hamas terrorist attack.
REVIEW: Using a collage of firsthand interviews with the main players, reenactments, security footage, traffic cams and horrifying Hamas livestreams “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue” recreates retired general Noam Tibon’s race from Tel Aviv to the Nahal Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border to rescue family members under siege from a Hamas terror attack.
Told with pulse racing urgency, the film captures the confusion, panic and determination of parents on a life and death mission. Director Barry Avrich’s straightforward, step-by-step account takes one of the most infamous days of our time and places it in an intimate context.
As son Amir, daughter-in-law Miri and their children hide in a darkened panic room, with only texts to connect them to the outside world, Tibon, whose kids nicknamed him 9-1-1 for his ability to respond in almost any situation, and wife Gali make the dangerous 90-minute journey into a chaotic war zone. It’s harrowing, dangerous, and if this wasn’t real life, it could easily play like a Liam Neeson “special set of skills” movie.
A story of family, resilience and survival, this an emotional doc that raises a universal question, What would you do to save your family?
At a quick 90 minutes Avrich keeps the focus tight and mostly in real time.
He leaves politics, as much as possible, on the cutting room floor, but does wonder aloud why it took the IDF so long to respond to the Hamas attack. It’s a question that goes mostly unexplored, as do many of the external elements of the story. Viewers looking for geopolitical context or in-depth analysis of the conflict will be left wanting. Instead, “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue” is a suspenseful character study; a snapshot of parent’s love for their family.
