(RNS) — Two years after the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s devastating retaliation in Gaza, a slew of new films are coming to theaters and generating Oscar buzz.
One of them offers a surprising and nuanced portrayal of an American-Israeli family whose adult daughter and her husband were kidnapped from their home on a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Holding Liat” takes place in the early days and weeks after the Hamas attack. It follows Yehuda Beinin and his wife, Chaya, American Jews who immigrated to Israel in their youth, as they try to agitate for the release of their kidnapped daughter, Liat Beinin Atzili, and find out the fate of her husband, Aviv Atzili. The documentary is now showing in New York, and, beginning Friday (Jan. 16), in Los Angeles. It will then roll out at theaters across the country.
Yehuda makes clear he doesn’t trust the Israeli government and detests its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The film documents him setting off with his other daughter, Tal, and with Liat and Aviv’s son, Netta, to the U.S. to try to influence congressional leaders to help secure Liat’s release.
Directed by Brandon Kramer, the documentary benefits from footage of the initial days after Oct. 7. Kramer and his brother Lance, one of the producers o …