HOLDING LIAT Trailer: A Family Tries to Rescue a Loved One in Berlinale-Winning October 7 Documentary

With the whole world paying close attention to the atrocities in Gaza, one documentary that observes a family up close and personal in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attacks is the captivating Holding Liat. Brandon Kramer (The First Step) directs with his brother, Lance Kramer, producing. It premiered at this year’s Berlinale, where it won the Best Documentary Award (swooped up by No Other Land the year before). It follows a Jewish-American family, the Beinins, whose adult daughter Liat was kidnapped in Israel by Hamas on October 7, along with 250 others – 12 of whom, like Liat, were American citizens. The Kramers, who are relatives of the Beinins, documented them as they band together to coordinate Liat’s rescue with Israeli authorities, while condemning Benjamin Netanyahu’s attacks on Gaza and trying to forge a path of unity between Israelis and Palestinians.

With the film picked up by international distributors, it will be released in the U.S. exclusively at New York’s Film Forum, before expanding nationwide. Following its win at Berlinale, the Documentary jury chair, Petra Costa (The Edge of Democracy; Apocalypse in the Tropics) said, “Holding Liat shows the path not of revenge but of humanity where we are challenged to look beyond the fence and care rather than kill our neighbors.”

Chris Reed wrote in his Tribeca Film Festival review, “In Holding Liat, director Brandon Kramer (The First Step), along with his brother and producing partner Lance Kramer, offer a powerful, nuanced portrait of one family caught in the middle of all the horrors that ensued after the October ambush… [The Beinins’] dedication to doing the right thing—for Liat and the Palestinian people—never wavers. Even more impressive, Liat’s own liberal beliefs, we learn at the end, remain more or less the same. We can grieve both Israeli and Palestinian deaths, it turns out. Kramer is a relative, which explains his camera’s intimate access to the family’s distress. Thanks to that connection, Holding Liat is, throughout, a moving testament to the human spirit and the beauty of consistent humanitarian values. It is possible to suffer tragedy and retain one’s core beliefs.”

Watch the first trailer below.

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