Latest news with #HoldingLiat
New York Times
2 days ago
- New York Times
The Israeli Hostage Who Refused to Embrace Revenge
Liat Beinin Atzili was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza for 54 days. When she returned to Israel, she learned her husband was murdered on Oct. 7. In this episode of 'The Opinions,' the editor Sarah Wildman speaks to Beinin Atzili about her radically different experience from most other hostages and why she doesn't believe in revenge. Below is a transcript of an episode of 'The Opinions.' We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the player above or on the NYT Audio App, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Sarah Wildman: I'm Sarah Wildman. I'm an editor and writer for New York Times Opinion. I first met Liat Beinin Atzili a little over a year ago by email. I edited an essay she wrote about the concept of tekumah, or rebirth after the Holocaust. She is a Holocaust educator and a history teacher for teens. She's also a former hostage. She was abducted from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023. She was held for 54 days and released during a one-week truce agreement. Liat returned to a changed landscape. Her home burned, her family displaced and her husband, Aviv, murdered during the attacks. Her family's efforts to bring her home are the story of a new documentary called 'Holding Liat.' In it we see both the efforts to secure her release and her return. After I watched the film, I couldn't stop thinking about how when Liat returned to Israel, she didn't turn away from Palestinians. She turned toward them, turning to her grief to find a path to peace and rejecting revenge. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Darren Aronofsky Produces Award-Winning Hamas Documentary ‘Holding Liat' — Watch Sneak Peek
Darren Aronofsky is supporting the documentation of the Israel-Palestine conflict: The auteur produces award-winning feature 'Holding Liat,' directed by Brandon Kramer. 'Holding Liat' tells the story of Liat Beinin-Atzili, an Israeli-American woman who was taken hostage by Hamas alongside her husband Aviv on October 7, 2023. Liat and Aviv have been held captive in Gaza with 250 other people, 12 of whom, like Liat, are American citizens. The film details how Liat's parents, sister, and children had to navigate the American political landscape to try to get her released. The official synopsis reads: 'Caught between international diplomacy and a rapidly escalating war, their family must face their own uncertainty and conflicting perspectives in the pursuit of Liat and Aviv's release. This agonizing process, and the ultimate fate of their loved ones, challenges how the members of the family understand themselves and their place in the the intimate lens of a family's experience, 'Holding Liat' poses complex questions of identity across generations, as the family is thrust into the epicenter of a global conflict rapidly unfolding in real-time.' More from IndieWire 'The Life of Chuck' Review: Mike Flanagan Lifts Audiences Up (for Once!) in Sentimental Drama Comedian Isabel Hagen Revisits Her Roots Playing the Viola in 'On a String' First Look 'Holding Liat' is an independent production of Aronofsky's Protozoa and Meridian Hill Pictures. The film was a Berlinale documentary award winner and will make its North American premiere at Tribeca 2025. Liat and her family will attend Tribeca screenings and answer audiences questions during the festival. Director Kramer is actually related to Liat, and knew he had to tell her story onscreen. 'This film represents the greatest challenge of my career: it's a deeply personal chronicle of my extended family's intimate experiences, set against the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which continues to impact so many people's lives,' Kramer told IndieWire. 'Our team carefully considered the film's rollout, which kicked off with sold-out screenings at the Berlinale – where it was recognized with the Documentary Film Award – and subsequent international premieres in Hong Kong, Brazil, Croatia, Poland, and Israel.' Kramer continued, 'As American filmmakers, with a film largely shot in the U.S., the North American premiere is a significant opportunity to reach audiences who are yearning for humane and nuanced storytelling, especially around the complex issues explored in the film. After premiering our last film 'The First Step' at Tribeca in 2021, it's an honor to return this year with 'Holding Liat.' We are deeply grateful to Tribeca and our subsequent hometown premiere at DC/DOX for bringing this story to American audiences in a moment that feels more urgent than ever.' In a director's statement, Kramer cited how the international conflict is still sadly enduring. 'More than a year after October 7, lives are still imperiled: with hostages still held, tens of thousands of Palestinians killed, and people across the region suffering,' he said. 'Our conversations about all these issues have only become more polarized, even within communities and families. By telling an intimate story of one directly impacted family, and the way they navigated differences amongst each other, we hope to open up new possibilities for understanding this conflict, and contribute to an end to the unrelenting violence in the region. We are keenly aware that this film is just one family's story out of countless others, and that many important stories may tragically never be told. We hope through the family's resilience and openness, alongside other Israeli and Palestinian films that seek to broaden understanding, audiences will find room to ask deeper questions that help mark a path toward healing and reconciliation.' 'Holding Liat' is produced by Aronofsky, Justin A. Gonçalves, Lance Kramer, Ari Handel, and Yoni Brook. Aronofsky also has his 'Underland' nature documentary, directed by Robert Petit, at Tribeca. 'Holding Liat' will have its North American premiere at Tribeca 2025 as a sales title. Check out a sneak peek below. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Holding Liat' Review: A Hostage Documentary Confronts the Limits of Empathy
The contradiction between acknowledgment and difficult acceptance lies at the heart of Brandon Kramer's documentary — about his elderly relative Yehuda Beinin dealing with his daughter Liat's Oct. 7 abduction — which establishes numerous political parameters through observation, in an effort to conjure sentiment. It succeeds on occasion, though given its thorny subject matter, your mileage may vary. The winner of the Berlin Film Festival's Documentary Award, 'Holding Liat' isn't quite as revelatory or forceful as last year's recipient (the West Bank land-grab exposé 'No Other Land,' which is currently nominated for an Academy Award). However, it wrestles even with its own place as a chronicle of an Israeli hostage family — one of two such films in this year's lineup; the other is the much more blinkered 'A Letter to David.' Kramer, by comparison, reveals a greater awareness of the political mechanics at play, and the place his movie occupies, by touching on how the pain of hostage families can be weaponized. More from Variety 'Ancestral Visions of the Future' Review: Lemohang Mosese's Heavy-Hearted but Fiercely Imaginative Homecoming 'Dreams (Sex Love)' Wins the Berlin Film Festival, While 'The Blue Trail' Earns Grand Jury Prize Family Dramas, Queer, Horror Themes Among Spanish Pics at Berlinale's Co-Production Market Underscore the Breadth of Spanish Filmmaking Yehuda gradually confronts this reality too. He speaks on it as much as his political sponsors will allow on his trip to the United States, where he meets with various senators while trying to sputter out objections to Netanyahu's bombing campaigns, and to the numerous Palestinians held in captivity by the IDF. He occupies a precarious position, as his other family members note. The resultant cognitive dissonance has great aesthetic value, though how much ethical value it holds for any viewer will likely depend on their political outlook. This manner of reading the film is inherent to its making: Kramer seldom interviews his subjects, and seeks mostly to capture a delicate reality unfolding in the moment with handheld intimacy — while also attempting to contextualize that reality, using as light and unobtrusive a touch as cinematically possible. Its hands-off approach comes to no real conclusions; a documentary needn't, but 'Holding Liat's' focus is people searching for solutions in the first place. It can't help but feel the film is missing some kind of emphasis or statement on the numerous viewpoints it captures. On one hand, Liat's teenage son, still reeling from the trauma of Oct. 7, demands blood. On the other, Yehuda attempts to walk a fragile moral line as a knowing political pawn in a greater chess game — whose intended outcome is war — while attempting to retain his pacifist beliefs by holding bad apples to account, if not the greater structures at play. His face is also a particularly potent canvas for the movie's drama. Liat's abduction (alongside her husband) appears to have left Yehuda frozen in stasis, unable to find an answer beyond broad gestures toward 'peace' in the abstract. It's an understandable conundrum, given the shattering pain he feels, but even his attempts to convince American politicians to scale back war efforts hit an emotional blockade when he first comes face to face with a Palestinian spokesperson in Washington, D.C. They find common ground while speaking in whispers, lest Yehuda's chaperones listen in. However, the reality of the situation comes crashing down on Yehuda in a complex moment of mutual recognition — of acknowledging familiar loss, and all that implies about his similarity to those who took his daughter during the Al-Aqsa Flood. Here, the film starts to pivot in intriguing ways, as Yehuda practically experiences real-time whiplash. This transition from theoretical to practical confrontation is all but debilitating, as the grieving father reaches the limits of his empathy. This is when Kramer makes the key decision to expand his lens, capturing not only a wider array of protests against the U.S. government, but a greater cross-section of opinions and approaches within Yehuda's own family. Among them, his brother Joel, a professor of Middle Eastern history who left Israel long ago, speaks at a conference in support of Gaza, where numerous members sport both Jewish yarmulkes and Palestinian keffiyeh. Although Joel doesn't feature for more than a few scenes, his presence sets a vital framework for 'Holding Liat,' via his recognition that the Kibbutz on which he lived (the kind from which many Israelis were abducted) was built on stolen land. As a member of the family and a student of history, Joel remains similarly torn in his emotional obligations, but his disagreements with Yehuda on possible solutions practically send the latter packing. There's only so much broader culpability Yehuda is willing to accept, and only so much compassion he's willing to show as he tries to secure his daughter's release. This emotional deadlock is key to the overall form the movie takes — in part, because there's only so far Kramer can scrutinize this stalemate without directly impacting the ongoing narrative. However, the camera's non-interventionist nature becomes vital. The visual approach embodies the Beinin family's loss of control, and the growing uncertainty around them and what they believe. For instance, the surprising details of Liat's capture fly in the face of the tales of barbarism the subjects have been told. At one point, Liat's own background as a historian becomes briefly central, if only for how one character comes agonizingly close to recognizing how the Holocaust can be used to justify further atrocity. The mere acknowledgment of a greater context — of a history of Palestinian oppression pre-dating Oct. 7 — is a major sociological blockade that 'Holding Liat' at least recognizes, regardless of whether it fully confronts it. The difficulty of doing so from within Israel's borders becomes, by the movie's closing moments, a central fixture of its emotional impact, even though its scrutiny of this personal and political compartmentalization only goes so far. The film is, in a way, tethered by its subject matter, unable to look beyond the peripheral vision of its characters in order to provide a more dynamic and multifaceted view of them and the world they occupy. However, as a work aimed at capturing a thorny perspective, it's an adequately thorny match. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
New York Times
21-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Corrections: Feb. 21, 2025
An article on Feb. 15 about a federal judge's move to extend an earlier judicial order that had temporarily restricted access to Treasury Department data and payment systems by Elon Musk and his team misspelled the given name of the judge overseeing the hearing. She is Jeannette A. Vargas, not Jeanette. An article on Thursday about what we know regarding the Trump administration's transfer of more than 175 men from an immigration holding site in Texas to the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay misstated the number of prisoners awaiting trial at Guantánamo's terrorism-related detention mission. It is six prisoners, not all 15 who remain. A Critic's Notebook article on Thursday about a film festival screening of the 1985 documentary 'Shoah' misidentified the nationality of the directors and producers of a film. The film 'Holding Liat' was directed and produced by Americans, not Israelis. An article on Thursday about the Metropolitan Opera's new season misspelled the surname of the director of 'El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego.' She is Deborah Colker, not Kolker. An article on Thursday about the possible effect on the finances of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington after President Trump purged the center's board of all Biden appointees and installed himself as chairman described incorrectly the DeVos Institute of Arts Management. It is no longer affiliated with the University of Maryland. Errors are corrected during the press run whenever possible, so some errors noted here may not have appeared in all editions.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Timestamp' Review: Powerful Ukrainian Documentary Captures Both Pain and Resilience of Children During Wartime
When one pictures a war, it's mostly scenes of blood, guts and glory. But wars, including major ones like the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, don't usually happen throughout the whole land. There are established frontlines and battlefields, buffer zones and areas that have been temporarily evacuated. Meanwhile, the rest of the country tries to go on living: The elderly stay at home, adults head off to work and children keep going to school. The latter group are the focus of Kateryna Gornostai's powerful new documentary, Timestamp (Strichka Chasu), which chronicles how Ukraine's educational system functions in the midst of a full-scale invasion. Capturing scenes of school life on all levels, from kindergartners all the way to high-school seniors, the movie highlights the resilience of students who continue to press on as their country defends itself, and teachers trying to make the most of a catastrophic situation. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Holding Liat' Review: Emotional Darren Aronofsky-Produced Israeli Hostage Doc Doesn't Shy Away From a Complex Situation 'Kontinental '25' Review: Romanian Auteur Radu Jude Delivers Another Caustic Modern Morality Tale 'After This Death' Review: Mía Maestro and Lee Pace in a Dud Follow-Up to Lucio Castro's Transfixing 'End of the Century' Eschewing classic talking-head interviews or archive footage from news reports, Gornostai's approach recalls the work of Frederick Wiseman and other documentarians whose methods are much more about showing than telling. While onscreen titles detail the names of cities and their respective distances from the front, the rest of Timestamp simply immerses us in various settings, observing kids of different ages doing the things kids tend to do in school: study, play, learn, hang out and get bored. But nothing is normal in a country mobilized for battle, and Gornostai reveals the different ways Ukrainians have adapted since Russia invaded back in February 2022. Classes closer to battle lines are taught via Zoom, while those farther away can go on like before, though they often get interrupted by air raid sirens driving everyone underground. In one sequence, an art teacher has transformed a basement into a colorful studio for students learning to paint and draw. Elsewhere, an entire subway platform has become a makeshift schoolhouse, complete with blackboards, desks and learning material. Because the war has been going on so long, the children appear to be unfazed, though every so often we focus on a kid who's clearly been traumatized. In one unforgettable scene, a little girl heads into her school library for a reading session, only to break down when she sees a photo of her dead father alongside portraits of other fallen soldiers. And yet minutes later she's managed to pick out a book and get to work. Timestamp reveals many things during its captivating two hours, and one of them is that kids — even those who've been through hell — have short memories, which is what helps them to keep going. As for the teenagers, they're growing up in a war-torn country where they may be next in line for the draft. High schoolers are taught how to fire rifles or apply tourniquets to wounds — the film's title refers to a timestamp measuring how long human tissue has been deprived of blood — and many see a future in which they'll soon be fighting themselves. But they're also just trying to be regular teens, making TikTok videos with friends or practicing dance routines for a graduation ceremony that closes the movie. Gornostai and cameraman Oleksandr Roshchyn capture these moments in gracefully composed widescreen shots filled with youthful bodies, whether its preschoolers scurrying down to a bomb shelter or adolescents shooting hoops in a gym that's been partially destroyed. The orchestral and choral score by Alexey Shmurak adds an epic quality to the imagers, as if we were watching the birth of a new nation rising like a phoenix from the ashes. Indeed, there's an undoubtedly nationalistic aspect to Timestamp, fostered by scenes of students singing patriotic hymns or saluting the dead during moments of silence, as well as in the lessons teachers give them about Ukrainians bravely resisting Russian invaders. (One can only imagine what's being taught in schools on the opposing side.) Such patriotism, whether you like it or not, is another facet of a long and devastating conflict that has altered so many lives when it hasn't completely wrecked them. And yet Gornostai's absorbing portrait is ultimately one of promise: of the durability of children who keep persisting despite awful circumstances, and of a time when they'll no longer have to do so. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The Best Anti-Fascist Films of All Time Dinosaurs, Zombies and More 'Wicked': The Most Anticipated Movies of 2025 From 'A Complete Unknown' to 'Selena' to 'Ray': 33 Notable Music Biopics
