Holding Liat (15)
Directed by Brandon Kramer
★★★

LIAT ATZILI and her husband Aviv were captured by Hamas on October 7 2023. Brandon Kramer’s documentary highlights the desperate campaign to get the couple freed.

In the context of 23 months of slaughter and devastation in Gaza, I was sceptical about the value of a narrative centring on the anguish visited on a single Israeli family. But Holding Liat is more complex and far-reaching than is initially apparent.

It focuses on the thoughts and activities of Liat’s father, Yehuda Beinin, who believes the crisis has been triggered by the crazy and dangerous leaders of both the Israelis and Palestinians.

He detests Benjamin Netanyahu for promoting an agenda which ignores the imperatives of keeping hostages alive in favour of preserving his ruling coalition and creating an opportunity to annex the West Bank.  

Other members of the family feel differently. Serious schisms are highlighted when Yehuda joins a lobbying campaign in Washington with his grandson Netta and Oregon-based daughter Tal.

When Maga and the zionist far right weaponise the grief and anxiety of hostage families, Yehuda is angry.    

Feelings are explored under the relentless gaze of the camera. Netta is frustrated by his grandfather’s emphasis on reconciliation with the Palestinian people; Tal takes a pragmatic line and urges her father to forget politics and accept anything that increases the chances of Liat’s safe return.  

A historically informed perspective is offered by Yehuda’s brother Joel, professor of history at Stamford University. He had perceived zionism as a vehicle for socialism until, in the early 1970s, he discovered his kibbutz was built on the ruins of Palestinian farms.  

Kramer’s examination of a family under pressure is frank and intense. A scene in which Yehuda and his wife Chaya struggle to accept each other’s reading of events stops just short of becoming exploitative.

More care is evident when Liat is reunited with her family: the intrusion of the filmmaking process into a profoundly emotional experience has been minimised by shooting the scene on a mobile phone. The moments in which Liat was told Aviv was dead were not filmed at all.

In the final scenes, history teacher Liat remembers that when she complained about everyday frustrations, Aviv reminded her of the conditions experienced by millions of Palestinians just a few miles away. Her final, incomplete, reflection is, “There’s a price for not acknowledging.”  

Despite its limited historico-political frame of reference, the film extends understanding of the psychologies underpinning the present genocide. In addition, it’s a fascinating – and at times uncomfortable – exploration of the dynamics of a family dealing with uncertainty, loss and grief. Kramer tells an important story; but it is not the whole story.

In cinemas from tomorrow.