A Soul Cannot Be Buried

About the Film

Thirteen parents whose children were murdered at the Nova and Psyduck parties on October 7 set out on a two-week journey through southern India. A Soul Cannot Be Buried does not revisit the events of that day. Instead, it looks at life alongside loss, at the body and mind seeking to go on living even when the heart refuses to let go, and at the deep bond that forms between parents bound by a shared loss in a place where no one has to explain their pain.

The journey to India grew out of a process that began in Israel. For nearly a year, the parents took part in a professionally facilitated group at Adama Tova, a community-based therapeutic space established in the wake of October 7. A year and four months after their loss, they set out together. India awakens the senses, and the distance from home allows their emotional defenses to soften. Alongside pain and longing, moments of closeness and humor, as well as moments of joy and a renewed connection to life, also emerge.

Director Adi Fainaru joins the journey without a film crew. She gradually becomes part of the group, and as trust deepens, moments of honesty, vulnerability and rare intimacy open up before her. In an approach informed by phototherapy, the camera is not only a tool for documentation but also a means of reflection and expression, making room for what is difficult to put into words. The film does not observe the parents from the outside; it grows out of the filmmaker’s closeness to them and the journey itself.

As life seeks a way back in, a question accompanying the parents throughout the journey comes into sharper focus:

If they allow themselves to release some of the pain, does that mean letting go of their children, too?