For hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal, a film imagines salvation through all things Japanese

Fans of anime — Japanese animation — tend to bond over their common passion, and that shared devotion drew videographer Jordan Barr to hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal, who was taken hostage on October 7, 2023, from the Nova rave during the Hamas-led terrorist invasion and is still captive in the Gaza Strip.

Gilboa-Dalal’s love of all things Nipponese, including teaching himself Japanese ahead of a trip he planned to take to the Asian nation, has been told many times by his family over the last 17 months.

Barr, co-founder and owner of Studio Pixel in Tel Aviv, had visited Japan before October 7. He was at an anime conference last March when he heard about Gilboa-Dalal’s interest in Japan.

That shared passion pushed Barr and co-director Chen Heifetz to spend the last months making “Guygu,” a six-minute animated film about Gilboa-Dalal and the imagined ways that his love for Japanese culture is hopefully helping him survive the tortures of Hamas captivity.

A trailer for the short film was screened for the first time on Sunday at Harucon, one of Israel’s biggest anime and manga conventions, held annually during the Purim holiday at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center.

Guy’s older brother and younger sister, Gal Gilboa-Dalal and Gaya Gilboa-Dalal, were present at the Sunday screening, and Gal spoke to the gathering about his brother and their mutual love for anime.

Gilboa-Dalal noted that the largely costumed crowd, with many in comic book or video game cosplay, was the right audience for the screening of the tribute to Guy.

The trailer imagines Gilboa-Dalal — his visage familiar from hostage posters — in various scenarios, e.g., surrounded by cherry blossoms and wearing a short-sleeved kimono. The voices of Gal, Gaya and their parents can be heard.

Gilboa-Dalal is seen banging himself on his chest, as his mother’s voice is heard telling him, “Guygu, if you feel that you’re in danger, give yourself a knock on the chest.”

It’s something his mother told him all the time, explained director Barr, as she often had a feeling that something terrible could happen.

The Gilboa-Dalals have often imagined Guy knocking himself on his chest during the last 17 months of captivity, as a reminder that even when things seem impossible, his family is with him.

Guy Gilboa-Dalal went to the Nova desert rave on October 6, 2023, with three friends for an outing they had planned for months. He met up with his brother, Gal, who showed up at the party early in the morning on October 7.

The two brothers hugged and took a selfie, which Guy sent to their mother. When the Hamas terrorists attacked at 6:30 a.m., the brothers attempted to escape, each in separate cars, a few minutes apart.

Both ended up in different places in the massive traffic jam at the exit to the festival and were separated amid volleys of fire from the terrorists.

It took Gal Gilboa-Dalal some seven and a half hours to escape, running and hiding in fields, with gunfire all around and without any word from his brother.

Within several hours, their family found a video of Guy and his best friend Evyatar David being taken hostage to Gaza, along with footage of them tied up, lying in a tunnel.

Gilboa-Dalal and David are friends from kindergarten and it appears they’ve been kept captive together in Gaza. The most recent signs of life came recently as the two appeared in a Hamas video, forced to watch as other hostages were released by the terror group.

Like many Israelis, Barr was already connected to another hostage family.

He realized in the first days after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack that Omer Shem Tov, son of Malki Shem Tov, his colleague from the media world, had been taken captive from the Nova festival.

Barr immediately reached out to the Shem Tovs. “When I first realized it was Omer, I couldn’t believe it. I offered to do anything I could to help,” said Barr.

He helped with several small projects, including turning a podcast recorded by Shelly Shem Tov into a video.

“Omer was the hostage I knew. He was always in my heart,” said Barr.

But when he heard about Guy’s love of Japan, he had the idea for the film and went to meet the Gilboa-Dalal family.

“There was just something in his story,” said Barr. “A 22-year-old, a young guy who loves Japan and taught himself Japanese. I understood his level of interest.”

Barr began a crowdfunding campaign in November 2024 to raise money to make “Guygu,” the family’s nickname for Guy.

There are the elements of “Guygu” that aren’t classically Japanese, noted Barr. Most anime revolves around ambivalence, a state of mind that Japanese identify with, he said.

But “Guy’s story isn’t ambivalent,” he said. “What happened to Guy, and everything surrounding captivity, is very black and white.”

But Barr also brings in the dreamlike aspects of anime to the short film, as his family and friends want to believe that Guy has been able to hold on to his dreams even as he’s being kept in a small cell in the airless Hamas tunnels below Gaza.

“It’s what I told his father, that Guy can imagine his captor is a samurai and that he succeeds in some Japanese escapism,” said Barr.

The process of creating the film and involving the Gilboa-Dalals has touched the family, said Barr, and he feels as if it is part of the journey of bringing Guy home.

“People told me I couldn’t make a film about him while this is still going on,” said Barr. “I say it doesn’t matter, Guy’s story still exists, we’re just letting his story be told and each person can interpret it as they like.”

Screening the trailer at Harucon also felt right, said Barr. Guy’s family was present during last year’s Purim anime convention, and Guy himself had attended in the past.

“It’s a place of anime, it felt right,” he said.

Once the short film is ready, in a few weeks, Barr plans on sharing it widely

“It’s showing Guy’s world, it’s telling this story, albeit in a softer way,” said Barr. “It’s a tribute too, to Guy and to the technique.”