This article is taken from the November 2024 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10.

Early in the morning of 7 October 2023, as Hamas terrorists started to slaughter hundreds of young people at the Nova dance festival, three escaped by car. They drove to the entrance of nearby Kibbutz Be’eri, seeking sanctuary. But they arrived at the same time as the first Hamas gunmen. CCTV footage shows what happened next.

A terrorist casually sprays the car with bullets. The vehicle slows, veers leftward and stops, its passengers now dead. Another gunman shoots into a house, the groans of his victim audible.

In One Day in October Dan Reed, an award-winning director, cuts between the killers’ own headset footage, the kibbutz’s CCTV system which captured so much of the slaughter, interviews with survivors, and the heart-rending last messages of those about to die to their loved ones.

Many tried to protect themselves and their families in their bomb shelters — but they were designed to protect from explosive impact and had no locks. One survivor recounted how he first watched his wife die, then Carmel, his 15-year-old son, after both were shot. Carmel, slowly bleeding out, asked if he could be buried with his surfboard. Some time later, he was.

The 7 October massacre was the worst mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. More than 1,200 people were killed and 254 taken hostage, of whom almost 100 are still in captivity. Kibbutz Be’eri, whose residents had once taken sick Gazans from the nearby border to Israeli hospitals for treatment, was one of the worst hit. One hundred and two people were killed, whilst 32 were taken hostage.

The Hamas gunmen clearly delighted in their work, spraying families with bullets, hurling grenades at those hiding, executing captives on the spot. The army’s response was shockingly ineffective. After two hours just 14 soldiers arrived, far outnumbered by the terrorists. Several were wounded.

Incredibly, the soldiers pulled out by helicopter, leaving the residents to fend for themselves. Eventually more soldiers arrived. By the end of the day the kibbutz was finally back in Israeli hands. One Day in October, available on Channel 4, is haunting, harrowing viewing.

Gaza before the war languished under Hamas. Corruption and crime were rife and violence endemic. Vast sums that could have been spent on infrastructure were stolen or spent on tunnels.

Yet an educated, professional middle-class was slowly emerging. The strip boasted universities, shopping malls, pleasant restaurants and cafes. It was possible to raise a family and live a middle-class life.

As Life and Death in Gaza shows, that world is now gone, perhaps forever. This moving documentary, available on BBC iPlayer, was filmed by four young Palestinians for months after 7 October, each documenting their and their families’ lives. At first the lack of a central character makes for slow viewing, but the sharply focused intensity of their stories soon draws the viewer in.

They are relentless chronicles of fear, destruction and misery, punctuated with occasional bright spots like the arrival of a baby. Adam, one of the filmmakers, once lived in a comfortable house with his parents and sisters. On a poignant visit to its remains with his sisters, he recalls how, “people might see it as just bricks, but for me, these are stories”.

Yet nobody questions Hamas’ terror state, the decision to launch the 7 October attack, or seems to make the connection between that slaughter and their misery. Such courage would likely have deadly consequences. Headset footage at the start of One Day in October shows Hamas terrorists driving into Israel, pumped up on bloodlust at the killing to come. “I swear to God we will slaughter them, I want to livestream this. We’ll show the folks back home,” one of the men shouts excitedly. So they did. Adam, his sisters, all of Gaza, are still paying the price.

On a very different note, The Offer is a joy to watch. The series is a dramatisation of the behind-the-scenes making of The Godfather. The backstory is captivating. Like all the best dramas The Offer has a flawed but sympathetic protagonist — the producer Albert S. Ruddy, brilliantly portrayed by Miles Teller. He embarks on a Herculean odyssey studded with apparently insurmountable obstacles as he tries to get the film made.

Foremost amongst these is the Mafia itself. New York’s kingpins of Italian organised crime were not very keen, at least initially, on being portrayed on screen as thugs and killers. Ruddy needs at least their nod of approval. After courting one boss in particular, he gets it.

Which brings the next problem: why is Ruddy friends with the Mafia, FBI agents are soon asking. Eventually the film is made. The Italian mob even enjoys a special preview of the film before it goes on general release.

The ten-part drama is showing on Paramount+. The 1970s fashions, cars and set design are pitch-perfect. It’s a glorious festival of bouffant hair, lapels and flares as wide as mainsails. The casting is marvellous, especially Anthony Ippolito as a young Al Pacino, Matthew Goode as the Hollywood impresario Robert Evans, and Justin Chambers as a bulky, shambling Marlon Brando.

The creative brains behind the film — the director Francis Ford Coppola, and Mario Puzo, the author of the book on which the film was based — are played by a hugely engaging double-act of Dan Fogler and Patrick Gallo. The episodes set in sun-baked Sicily are especially enjoyable — and studded with references to the film itself, bringing smiles of recognition to Godfather aficionados. This is one offer you really should not refuse.