On October 7, 2023, Liat is kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas. Shortly thereafter, filmmaker Brandon Kramer begins filming her family. He poignantly depicts the different ways in which Liat's parents attempt to deal with their fears – side by side, criticism of the country’s politicians and personal family dynamics in the face of horror come to the surface.
At the same time, the film portrays how Liat's parents, Yehuda and Chaya, work towards her and her husband's release – only later do we learn that he had already been murdered. Yehuda is an American, and Liat also has American citizenship. At the invitation of President Biden, Yehuda and Liat's son Ofri travel, as part of a delegation, to the United States to do everything within their power to help secure the release of the hostages. Fear for Liat’s safety is intertwined with anger at the decisions of the Netanyahu administration and feelings of powerlessness. The film cautiously accompanies the family, revealing in the process not only the various strategies they employ in order to deal with the anxiety and uncertainty but also the differing political views held within the family. And all the while it sensitively engages with the great open-endedness that characterised the film project from the beginning given no one could know, at the time, whether Liat would ultimately be released or not.
Text: Lea Wohl von Haselberg
Additional Screening
Thur, May 8, 19:00
JÜDISCHE GEMEINDE LK OBERHAVEL
(Lehnitzstraße 36, 16515 Oranienburg)
Credits
original title Holding Liat
international title Holding Liat
german title Holding Liat
JFBB section Documentary Film Competition
country/countries US
year 2025
duration 98
Brandon Kramer
BIO Brandon Kramer is a Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures with his brother Lance. Brandon directed THE FIRST STEP (Tribeca, AFI DOCS); CITY OF TREES (Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, PBS, Netflix); and the Webby Award-winning independent documentary series THE MESSY TRUTH (CNN). Brandon is a Film Independent Fellow, a DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Fellow, a regular collaborator with Kartemquin Films in Chicago, and has served as a media teaching artist
for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Brandon holds a bachelor’s degree in film and cultural anthropology from Boston University.
