Latest news with #Liat
Yahoo
4 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
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Holding Liat' Review: Emotional Darren Aronofsky-Produced Israeli Hostage Doc Doesn't Shy Away From a Complex Situation
It's impossible to know how you would react if a major historical tragedy were to befall your family. Would you tune everything out to focus entirely on your personal misfortunes, doing all you can to make things better for your loved ones? Or would you also try, if the circumstance permitted, to see things within a broader context, questioning how such a tragedy managed to happen in the first place? This is the dilemma at the heart of the politically potent and emotionally gripping new documentary Holding Liat, which follows two elderly parents facing the kidnapping of their daughter during the Hamas attack of October 7th, 2023. Offering a rare look at all the backdoor lobbying, moral questioning and endless waiting involved in an affair that lasted for nearly two months, director Brandon Kramer does an impressive job revealing the personal and geopolitical aspects of a heartbreaking true story. More from The Hollywood Reporter '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' 'Late Shift' Review: Gripping Drama Revolves Around an Extraordinary Leonie Benesch as an Overworked and Tireless Nurse The film, which premiered in Berlin's Forum sidebar, manages to both voice criticisms of the Israeli government and its fervent supporters, and remain compassionate toward the victims of a massacre whose repercussions are still being felt across the world. At a time when people feel obliged to choose which side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict they stand on, Holding Liat takes a thoughtful middle ground that exposes the situation without exploiting it. Whether an American distributor will want to touch such a divisive hot potato is another question, but Kramer's movie certainly merits attention. Forty-nine-year-old history teacher Liat Beinin Atzili and her husband, Aviv, were residents of the Nir Oz kibbutz when Hamas militants pierced the border on October 7th, killing over a thousand Israelis and taking hundreds of others hostage. The documentary begins a few weeks after the attack, when Liat's retired parents, Yehuda and Chaya, are desperately searching for news on their daughter and son-in-law. As a pair of Americans who emigrated to Israel in the 1970s, where they raised Liat and her younger sister, Tal, the Beinins find their lives completely upended when we first encounter them. While Chaya stays back home to be with the rest of her family, Yehuda soon heads off to Washington, D.C., where he joins other parents and relatives to lobby for the hostages' release. It's clear from the get-go that Yehuda is not an admirer of Benjamin Netanyahu and the current Israeli regime, and he certainly doesn't fit the cliché of a flag-waving Zionist. Decked out in a 'Good Morning Vietnam' t-shirt and sporting a Bernie bumper sticker on his car, he's a devout leftist who came to Israel hoping to settle into a country filled with socialist Kibbutzim, only to find it ruled decades later by a coalition of religious fundamentalists and far-right zealots, with a corrupt leader at the top. While in Washington, Yehuda tries to coerce senators and congresspeople into negotiating with Hamas for the handover of Liat and Aviv, although the latter's whereabouts remain unknown. Outspoken and refusing to cater to the faction he's stuck with, Yehuda can't help opening his mouth and getting into trouble. 'We're being led by crazy people, whether on the Israeli or Palestinian side,' he complains, while everyone keeps telling him to play the emotional angle, not the political one. This includes his daughter, Tal, who has a hard time dealing with her father's refusal to kowtow to politicians. 'Do you think I wanted to meet Mitch McConnell, that fucking asshole?!' she yells at him, in a scene that would make for good Jewish comedy if the situation weren't so tragic. Especially sad is the case of Netta, one of Liat's three children, who survived the attack. He's been severely impacted by what happened, and unlike his grandfather doesn't what to talk about Bibi or Gaza. There's a scene in which he's sitting with Yehuda in the back of a car after a fundraising event, and the two are unable to speak to each other. The chasm between them seems to reflect the greater chasm separating several generations of Israelis — from the old left-wing idealists like Yehuda to their teenage grandchildren, who have grown up in a fractured world that's made them more fatalistic. Kramer focuses on these moments in the early part of Holding Liat, offering a lucid portrait of a family divided by a conflict that hits them directly as it echoes across the globe. The second half of the film, which isn't worth spoiling for the emotional weight it carries, shifts from the political to the personal as Yehuda, Chaya, their children and grandchildren cope with the realities of the disaster. If there are moments where Kramer definitely turns on the waterworks, with a score by Jordan Dykstra (20 Days in Mariupol) amplifying the impact of such scenes, the movie remains a more even-handed account of events relative to so much out there, whether on TV or social media. Especially poignant is a closing scene set at Israel's Holocaust museum Yad Vashem, in which the film attempts to draw a link between the walls erected around the Warsaw Ghetto and those dividing Gaza from neighboring Israel. Some will no doubt find the comparison controversial, but for the Beinin family, it's a reality they've now experienced first-hand, and one they continue to grapple with as life inevitably goes on. 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
