Holding Liat

On October 7, 2023, Liat was abducted from her kibbutz by Hamas. In the days that followed, filmmaker Brandon Kramer began filming with her family, documenting their raw and unfiltered struggle as they searched for answers. What begins as a portrait of grief quickly becomes something more: a window into the deep fractures within Israeli society, the reach of global diplomacy, and the human cost of a war that continues to devastate Gaza and Israel alike.

At the center is Liat’s father, Yehuda, a US citizen, a pacifist, and a man unwilling to remain silent. Traveling to Washington with his family, he pleads for his daughter’s life while fiercely challenging both Israeli and American policies. Within the family itself, emotions and politics collide, exposing the tensions that mirror an entire society: fear and defiance, longing and rage, despair and fragile hope.

Winner of the Berlinale Documentary Film Award, Holding Liat is more than a chronicle of one family’s ordeal. It is an urgent, unflinching reminder of how personal trauma and political violence are inseparably bound, and how even in the darkest of moments, the possibility of reconciliation depends on recognizing the humanity of those on the other side.

2025
Directed by Brandon Kramer.
In Hebrew with English subtitles.
Running time 98 min.