The film follows Liat’s family, in particular her father Yehuda, as they campaign desperately to try and secure her release from captivity. Kramer, a distant relative of Liat’s family who has known them for years, follows their trip to Washington as part of a group of hostage families lobbying the American political establishment for support. This pre-existing relationship allows him to document the most painful, intimate and traumatic moments. Herein lies the film’s true power. The massacre on 7 October and Israel’s apocalyptic response has been deeply and irrevocably politicised, but Holding Liat is a human story. It’s about how people and families respond to trauma – how we struggle to hold onto our principles, ideals and our bonds to each other in the face of overwhelming horror.
Yehuda was a member of the left-wing Zionist group Hashomer Hatzair. He viscerally loathes Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and detests being wheeled around Washington as a prop for the Israeli government, which he feels is instrumentalising his grief to advance its own agenda. By contrast, Liat’s youngest son Netta believes that 7 October justifies a no-holds-barred response from the Israeli military, judging all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as complicit. Meanwhile, Liat’s sister Tal begs the family to focus solely on securing Liat’s release and not to get distracted by the broader politics. It mirrors the tensions tearing at the very fabric of Israeli society and the wider Jewish diaspora, played out before an unflinching camera lens. The temptation to look away, to give the family privacy in navigating these divisions, can become overwhelming.
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