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Meanwhile, journalists attending a nearby red carpet ahead of the premiere had to pass through multiple layers of security before speaking to the team involved in the film, which chronicles retired Israeli general Noam Tibon's mission to rescue his family during the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

Pro-Palestinian protesters chanted "Free Palestine" outside the theatre, with some calling the documentary "Israeli propaganda," though they hadn't seen it. 

Protester Emma Chadwick said she doesn't support the documentary but she's glad that its screening has mobilized antiwar activists. 

"I feel that in the face of governmental — and other groups such as TIFF, people with high profiles — in the face of their inaction, I feel that what we have is our own action," she said. "The actions; the protests; the time that we spend raising and raising the issue, as the genocide continues."

The largest professional organization of scholars studying genocide issued a resolution last week saying Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The U.N. and many Western countries have said only a court can rule on whether the crime has been committed. A case against Israel is before the U.N.’s highest court. 

Last month, TIFF said it pulled the film from its lineup due to security concerns and rights issues, prompting criticism from politicians, Jewish organizations and entertainment industry figures. 

The festival reinstated the film days later, pledging clearer communication around its programming decisions. 

At the counter-protest on Wednesday, demonstrator Lesley Shapero said she showed up to support Israel, where she lived for many years. She declined to comment on the pro-Palestinian protesters' message.

"There's nothing to talk about the other side. They just spout and they're horrible," she said, saying that people should learn "the truth."

"The truth is that we were attacked on the 7th of October. Hamas came and attacked Israel. That's the truth. There is no other truth," Shapero said.

Meanwhile, Avrich said the film is not political. 

"I focused 100 per cent on Noam's story and saving his family. That's what I was focused on, making the film. There's lots of political documentaries out there. There's lots of politics everywhere. That's just not what this film's about," he said on the red carpet, which wasn't co-ordinated by TIFF but by an outside PR agency. 

Tibon, who also attended the premiere, said he hopes people see the universal story in the film.

"I think it's an international story about what is really important in our life," he said ahead of the screening. "Basically the most important issue in our life is our family and on that chaotic day, my wife and I took a journey and used everything that we have. I used all my skills, all my knowledge, all my experience to save my family, and to do my duty as a father, as a grandfather," he said.

"The Road Between Us" is described on TIFF’s website as a “rescue thriller� in which Avrich combines new interviews with footage from Oct. 7.

Several films by Palestinian filmmakers are also showing at TIFF, including the historical drama “Palestine 36,� which transports audiences to the 1930s, when the territory was under British control, before the creation of the state of Israel.

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in their attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, prompting Israel's retaliatory offensive.

Since then, more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said last week. The ministry doesn’t say how many of those killed in the war were militants or civilians, but says women and children make up around half the dead.

— With files from Maan Alhmidi, Cassidy McMackon and The Associated Press

This report by °µÍø½ûÇø was first published Sept. 10, 2025.