On October 6, 2023 Nir Oz – situated less than seven kilometres from the border with the Gaza Strip – had 427 residents.
By the afternoon of October 7, more than 40 residents had been murdered and almost 70 had been taken captive by Hamas.
In what was described as a massive failure by the IDF, the first soldiers to arrive at Nir Oz did so 40 minutes after the last terrorist had left.
Part of the Nir Oz security group was Aviv Atzili. He was killed while defending his kibbutz. His body was taken into the Gaza strip.
His wife, Liat Beinin Atzili, was taken hostage.
Their story is told in the award-winning film, Holding Liat.
“This was the hardest film I’ve ever made. I’ve never made a film with family, with people that I love. I’ve never made a film where I’ve been so up close to trauma unfolding in real time,” director Brandon Kramer told The AJN ahead of the film’s Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
The film has just been shown at the Tribeca Film Festival where it received a standing ovation, and recently won the best documentary award at the Berlinale.
“It was honestly very painful to make this film because there were so many moments where I wanted to just put the camera down and hug them, and be there as a family member. And sometimes I did that. But sometimes I caught myself and said ‘no, this is doing something even more important, to show up for this family and for the greater good’.”
Kramer and his brother Lance are cousins of the Beinin family. They spent the first couple of months after October 7 following the Beinin and Atzili families, particularly Liat’s parents Yehuda and Chaya, as they fought to find out what happened to Aviv and Liat, as they found out about Aviv’s murder and as they eventually welcomed Liat home.
“This is not a story frozen in time that looks at the distant past that we’re reflecting on”
“This was not a film we wanted to make or planned to make. [We] just felt a deep responsibility to create it,” Kramer recalled, explaining that from the get-go, the aim was to tell one family’s story.
“It’s not a film that encompasses all of the atrocities of October 7, or all of the atrocities of what’s been happening in Gaza and the West Bank. It’s really a story about the Beinin and Atzili family’s experience, and that was a very nuanced and complex, and then intimate experience to bear witness to.”
Holding Liat is a raw, unfiltered view of how the family processes everything that has happened, including Aviv and Liat’s son, Netta, who is a survivor of the attack. It shows their disagreements, in particular their political ones, especially when Yehuda and Netta travelled to the United States – meeting Liat’s sister Tal who lives in Oregon – to advocate for the release of the hostages.
While political differences occur in many families, the Beinin and Atzili families were forced to face theirs head-on, while dealing with extremely difficult circumstances.
“Every member of the Beinin and Atzili family was processing this tragedy in their own way, and unlike other families and communities that are divided around this conflict, they had no choice but to confront these differences with one another, because their loved ones’ lives were at stake,” Kramer explained.
“This was the hardest film I’ve ever made. I’ve never made a film with family, with people that I love. I’ve never made a film where I’ve been so up close to trauma unfolding in real time”
Yehuda told The Times of Israel that originally, he believed it would be a family film that he would be able to show Aviv and Liat on their return.
And at first, Kramer admitted that he didn’t know where it was going either. He just knew they had to capture as much as they could. He said it was one particular scene that documents Yehuda and Netta in the car, blatantly disagreeing on tactics and politics that made him realise it was much more. While Yehuda sees the hostage talks as an opportunity to advocate for peace and reconciliation, Netta, who is deeply traumatised, just wants to focus on his parents.
“In that moment, myself, Lance and Yoni, the director of photography, we all talked and we felt that what we were witnessing was three generations of an American Israeli family, caught in the middle of this crisis, where the whole world was looking at the hostages and the hostage families,” he said. “We felt that it was a really important story to tell, and to try and tell without our agenda. The agenda being truth and authenticity.”
The film has been described by The Hollywood Reporter as “a thoughtful middle ground” because it really does document rather than comment.
“I think there’s enormous importance to seeing the gray area and seeing contradictions, complexities, seeing different perspectives in stories that deal with people’s lived experience. And I think we’re living in a moment where we’re all too often fed narratives, whether it’s social media or mainstream media that sort of fit our political views, and within this family, every single person has a very different view,” Kramer explained. “Honestly, it was a real gift to have the opportunity to see different perspectives within a directly impacted family playing out in real time.”
The team was there for every moment – from every phone call from the IDF to update Yehuda and Chaya about Liat to meetings in the US and finally being told that Liat was on the release list. It was one of the few moments that the team were not with the Beinins, and viewers see them racing to the hotel room as Yehuda takes the call from the IDF, which Kramer described as “an incredible moment to film”.
They even beautifully captured Liat’s homecoming and Aviv’s funeral, both of which Liat graciously agreed to film. As Kramer said, the family deserves enormous credit for the courage to be so vulnerable.
Aviv’s body was recovered in June this year. It happened while the entire film crew and the family were at Tribeca. Kramer said it was a reminder that the situation is ongoing.
“This is not a story frozen in time that looks at the distant past that we’re reflecting on,” Kramer said. “This is a story that we made very urgently… because there are millions of lives at stake. Israelis, Palestinians, people all across the region, people all across the world that are in some way, directly or indirectly, connected to this conflict.”
Kramer is hoping that the film helps disarm people’s emotions to allow healing and dialogue.
“This one film, it’s not going to solve peace in the Middle East. But I do believe stories like this, alongside other Israeli and Palestinian films that I hope are also made that deal with this conflict and broaden understanding, I hope can contribute toward peace and toward ending these cycles of violence.”
Holding Liat is premiering as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival. For tickets, visit miff.com.au
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