In Our Darkest Moments, We Bring Light - "Colleyville" by Dani Menkin

July 19, 2024

By Bessy ADUT

Last month, we had an interview with Dani Menkin. Later, I had a chance to watch the North American Premiere of “Colleyville” at the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival.

This was a very extraordinary and original documentary. We witness a hostage situation or filmed live and edited through surveillance cameras along with some interviews with the hostages afterwards about their experience. It was dark but funny at moments at the same time, definitely very interesting and original. It is a true story happening right in front of our eyes and until I watched it, I didn’t know the real story so it was a surprise to me. It was very interesting to watch how events that were filmed by a security cam footage in a hostage crisis in a Texas synagogue unfold.

I was very impressed by the way this film was edited and directed. On an ordinary day, 3 good people at this synagogue let a stranger in, who then threatens them and demands for his sister to be released from prison. He believes a powerful Rabi has a say in her freedom. This is a delusional, young gentleman.

For me, and many other viewers, one of the most touching moments and a few bitter laughter came when they all get hungry and order pizza. For the pizza to be kosher, they order cheese pizza and eat it all together. That’s the most touching thing, in that moment we realize that we are all human and vulnerable.

Malik Akram kept saying “I love death more than you love life.” He was a mad young man. He was mad, because he believed his sister was arrested by a slander and in his heart with good intentions he was trying to become a hero and save her. However, neither the people in the synagogue nor the Rabbi he reached out to had anything to do or say about the matter.

I was very impressed how each Rabbi kept their cool throughout the scary situation. It is like a horror movie but it’s real happening right before our eyes. Looking back, they are able to laugh at certain things such as the pizza moment, however, they also admit they were all very scared for their lives.

We also see in this documentary, unlike how it is portrayed in fiction movies, that there is a very humanistic, good side to our villain. For instance, he lets the oldest man go, saying he is at the age of his old father. He does all of this because in his heart he is trying to rescue his damsel in distress, even though he fails he tries. He makes a lot of empty threats but he doesn’t really harm or kill anybody. Overall I admitted that I was sad to see him get shot at the end. Although he put himself into that situation, I was not able to see him just as an evil person. I was glad all Rabbis were safely rescued and none of them got hurt or died. However, I wish in an ideal world Akram would have been arrested rather than die. I guess he attracts death to himself with his words and actions.

The event was streamed online and the congregants watched the whole thing. Apparently, a Facebook stream continued to record the event through a private server.

The film was edited with all the live-stream clippings that had been streamed on Facebook throughout the hostage situation. More than 200 local, state, and federal law enforcement officials, including a SWAT team and 70 FBI hostage negotiators and rescue operatives were called in. For the first time, all of the hostages and their families tell their stories on camera.

Colleyville

At the end of the day, one of the hostages manages to catch a blank moment and manage to run away and escape from this situation. They live to tell their stories and we live to listen. Aside from this incident, Colleyville, Texas, is actually a suburb of Fort Worth, and it is known to be ranked the safest city in Texas.

It was so peaceful and so safe that (almost) no one had ever heard of it until January 15, 2022, when a terrorist seized Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville. It reminds us one more time of the importance of co-existence and the effects of Jewish people being stereotyped as “holding all the powers in the world” kind of images creating false ideas in young people. The whole hostage situation actually took 11 hours but the filmmakers managed to bring it down to a movie length. “Colleyville” was produced by Los Angeles-based film production company, Hey Jude Productions. The film company was created by Israeli Academy Award winner, writer, and director Dani Menkin which I had a chance to interview earlier and meet in person at the festival. Cohen states that he hopes the film addresses the dangers of racist tropes and stereotypes of Jewish people. I think it does reflect that fact.

I was glad the hostages were able to go back to their families and survive. I do hope to say the same for the current hostages. I wish for their release and for people to live in love and peace. When people put differences aside then they are able to focus on what makes us all human; how we need to focus on making the world a better place and becoming better people not by antagonizing or trying to hurt one another. Some people stepped out when the movie got too emotional but I was glad to see the relief moments and nervous laughs at times as well. Films like these bring a lot of emotions to the surface and I believe that is a good thing.

I don’t say it for many documentary films but this was an interesting one which made me feel as if I am watching a live paranormal activity-style movie in real-time, so, I would like to recommend it to viewers.

Here is the trailer for this interesting documentary: https://vimeo.com/858969151

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In Our Darkest Moments, We Bring Light - "Colleyville" by Dani Menkin

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