Holding Liat

Synopsis

This powerful, poignant documentary follows the Beinin family, who find themselves ensnared in one of the defining political calamities of our times. On the morning of October 7, 2023, Liat Beinin Atzili and her husband Aviv were kidnapped from their kibbutz by Hamas militants, leaving Liat’s American-Israeli parents, Chaya and Yehuda, desperate to get their daughter back. Yehuda, who travels to Washington D.C. to advocate for his daughter’s release, is a die-hard leftist and long-time critic of Benjamin Netanyahu. But as the days turn into weeks and then months, tensions rise, leaving the family worried, angry, and divided.

Tense and affecting, the film chronicles the Beinin clan’s race against time to save their family members, while also rendering the conflicting ideologies of those caught in the quagmire with great nuance. Winner of the top documentary prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Holding Liat offers a profoundly moving story of a family in crisis and raises provocative questions about identity, faith, morality, and justice in a society thrown into turmoil by the war in Gaza.