‘We were so broken’: Nova survivor Rita Yedid brings story of resilience to the screen

Interview

'The movie is about surviving and how to keep on living'

In documentary ‘Rita,’ which premiered May 27, the mother of two recounts hiding in the rave’s ticket booth as her husband shielded her from Hamas gunfire, and the painful aftermath

By Jessica Steinberg

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Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

Rita Yedid survived the massacre at the Nova desert rave during the bloody October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught by hiding in the ticket office as her husband shielded her with his body. He took three bullets as terrorists shot through the doors and windows.

Yedid, now 35, is a mother of two, including a six-month-old son. She’s the subject of a new documentary, “Rita,” which premiered May 27 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.

The 55-minute documentary takes viewers through the fight for survival in which Yedid, her husband Guy, and her sister Eden hid with other partygoers in the ticket booth at the rave.

Guy was shot three times in his lower stomach as he lay on top of Rita before they were rescued by IDF troops around 2:30 p.m., eight hours after the attack began.

The couple’s personal troubles began in the wake of the attack, as Guy recovered from the gunshot wounds and the pair took stock of what happened to them and others that day.

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“The movie is about surviving and how to keep on living,” said Yedid. “How is it to live knowing that you have so much to deal with.”

Yedid and her husband have long attended nature raves, including while Rita lived for a decade in the United States. During that time, she became known around the party scene as Wonder Rita.

“I’m the kind of person who knows how to do everything. I can put a nail in the wall, and see what people need, I’m always one step ahead,” said Yedid, who created her own logo, a riff on actress Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman emblem.

The couple married in March 2021, when Yedid was already six months pregnant with their eldest, Om, now 5 years old.

On October 6, they headed to the rave with Yedid’s sister, Eden Shtivelman, who was working at the ticket booth. They arrived at the party at 10 p.m. after spending Friday night having dinner with their mother in Ashdod and leaving 2-year-old Om with his grandmother.

“It was going to be so much fun,” said Yedid. “We had a great tent set up, went to bed early, and got up at 4 a.m. for the sunrise.”

“As soon as we headed to the dance floor with my sister, the sky went black with rockets,” she said.

The Yedids survived, but they struggled to get past the issues they faced after October 7.

Traumatized by the carnage, Guy insisted that they emigrate to Greece, and even underwent surgery for his wounds abroad.

“It wasn’t a good idea to leave Israel,” said Yedid.

Her husband wanted her unending thanks for protecting her that day, said Yedid, while she wanted to work through the trauma by speaking to groups, thanking soldiers in person and becoming a motivational speaker — something she’d thought about in the past as well.

The documentary shows some of that struggle, including Yedid’s conversations with her therapist and her tearful recollection of her tale of survival to a young audience visiting the Nova site near Kibbutz Reim.

The film was made by Tali Shemesh and Asaf Sudry, a director and producer who have been working with Project SafeHeart, a nonprofit organization established immediately after October 7 to provide specialized mental health care to survivors of the Nova massacre.

“It’s hard to see your wife talking about the bad days that we have,” said Rita. “It brought a lot of stress into the relationship.”

The couple ended up breaking up and getting back together. Yedid got pregnant again and gave birth to their youngest son in December 2025.

Now, however, they are separated, and Yedid said that her husband wasn’t at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque premiere of the film.

“We were so broken, we broke our connection,” said Yedid.

Yedid said she is still making her way through her recovery, now single-parenting her 5-year-old and newborn.

With the premiere of “Rita,” Yedid plans on screening the film for Jewish communities around the world, sharing her story and finding resilience. She can be contacted through her website, Wonder Rita.

“We can find our lemonade from these lemons,” she said.

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