In their darkest hour, this family embraces empathy, peace, self‑determination, and security for both Israelis and Palestinians

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00:00Now, the near-odds kibbutz was ravaged during the October 7th attacks.

00:0547 of its residents were killed and 76 were taken hostage, among them Liat and Aviv Atsili.

00:12Liat was released 54 days after being taken hostage by Hamas,

00:16and her family's ordeal is documented in holding Liat.

00:20Take a look.

00:30It is so hard not knowing what's going on with her.

00:45My biggest worry is that she's not with us anymore.

00:51We're being led by crazy people, whether it's on the Israeli side or whether on the Palestinian side.

00:57And the result is all this death and destruction.

01:03Yehudah and I deal with problems differently.

01:07The struggle for peace and reconciliation is the best way to respect Liat and Aviv

01:13and provide a human side to the story.

01:16I'm not going to thank them for abducting my parents and murdering my acquaintances.

01:21Let's just figure out where Liat and Aviv are.

01:23Let's just focus on that, Abba.

01:27We want to be supportive of the family.

01:31And on the other hand, I'm here and I disagree politically.

01:35Sometimes it's better to just be quiet.

01:37Because you know what?

01:38Forgetting Liat and Aviv back?

01:39Put a yarmulke on your head.

01:40No, I'm not going to run away.

01:42I'll stand my ground.

01:46There's no way of knowing how much longer this is going to go on.

01:49Who's holding her?

01:50Is she in a house?

01:51Is she in a cave?

01:52Is she being fed?

01:53Does she have her glasses?

01:54The longer it takes, the harder it is to stay positive.

01:57There's no guarantee that either of them are cutting out of this alive.

02:01I want them back.

02:09What are you making sure you're so understanding about their considerations?

02:13They're playing games.

02:14I feel your pain.

02:19I lost half of my family so far.

02:21I think every person in Israel, and I'm sure that on the Palestinian side, has someone that

02:27they have lost.

02:29So how do you even begin to coexist in that violent cycle?

02:33Your story is quite unusual.

02:40Can you talk about what you remember?

02:42We can now go across to Washington, D.C. and speak to the film's director, Brandon Kramer.

02:55Brandon, thank you so much for joining us on the program today.

02:57Holding Liat documents one family's incredibly personal journey during a very, very difficult time.

03:03What within you realize that this family story needs to be told?

03:07Look, I found out a day after October 7th that two of my relatives were taken, and I called

03:21Liat's parents, Yehuda and Chaya, to check in on them.

03:25And in that conversation, they expressed to us that they were getting no response from the

03:30Israeli government.

03:32And Liat is an American citizen as well.

03:34So Yehuda, his grandson, and his daughter flew to Washington, D.C. to try to advocate

03:40for their release.

03:42And as we began documenting this, three generations of this family navigating this unimaginable

03:48crisis, what we saw was so much more complex than any of the stories that we were hearing

03:55about the hostage crisis and about the hostage families.

03:59Here you had Liat's father, who was obviously grieving and in enormous duress.

04:05Her daughter and son-in-law were in captivity.

04:07But immediately, he's calling for peace and reconciliation and looking to the day after.

04:13And to us, that kind of empathy for what his family was going through and the other hostage

04:19families were going through.

04:20But also for Palestinians on the other side of the fence was a narrative and a perspective

04:26that we felt was critically important.

04:27Did that surprise you?

04:29Because you were, of course, filming all of this in real time to see that even in this

04:33difficult time, he's thinking of the other side and the pain that's being caused to them.

04:41You know, I've known Yehuda and Chaya and Liat's family for many years.

04:46And so it didn't surprise me because I knew their humanitarian values.

04:55And I was, you know, really, as a filmmaker, you know, Liat, when she came out of captivity

05:03after 54 days of being held, we didn't know what her experience was.

05:08We didn't know how she would show up in that moment.

05:11And for her to come out of captivity and say, I don't want a, obviously, I don't want, I

05:18want the hostages to come home immediately.

05:20I want all of this violence to end.

05:23But I don't want a single Palestinian child or human being to be harmed in retribution or

05:29revenge for what happened to me.

05:30I want peace.

05:31I want reconciliation for somebody that has been held for 54 days, whose husband was killed,

05:37whose children were almost killed, was an extraordinary thing to behold.

05:41And as a filmmaker, we felt that story was just very important in this moment.

05:45How is Liat doing now?

05:49Liat is, you know, she's doing okay.

05:54She's, she recently moved back to the kibbutz and is rebuilding her life.

06:01Her family is rebuilding their lives.

06:03She's part of a group called the Bereaved Families, the Bereaved Parents Circle, which is a group

06:11of Israeli and Palestinian family members who have lost loved ones due to this conflict,

06:17who have suffered, you know, the ultimate price and have chosen to build relationships,

06:22to build community and jointly call for peace and reconciliation.

06:27And so that's a, that's been a part of her healing journey is to connect with other women

06:31in particular who have lost loved ones.

06:34Liat was one of the lucky ones in Gaza.

06:37She was held and she, she wasn't tortured or anything.

06:44She had her needs met the bare minimum, one can say.

06:48And her curiosity got the better of her.

06:51She wanted to learn more about the people there and the situation in Gaza.

06:55Does she talk about her experiences?

06:57And is that, is that a way of healing, do you think, the trauma of what she went through?

07:05Yeah, I think for her, and you see this in the film, you know, she doesn't want to be

07:11boxed in at all by her experience.

07:15Um, she, look, she almost was killed herself.

07:20Her husband was killed.

07:22Um, her children were almost killed.

07:24She suffered an enormous tragedy, but she also was held by people who treated her humanely.

07:31Um, you know, she was taken care of, she felt safe, um, you know, all things considered, um,

07:38you know, during her experience in captivity.

07:40And she also witnessed the humanitarian crisis that Palestinians are experiencing in Kanyunas

07:50while she was being held there.

07:52And I think emerged wanting to embrace these two things, this horrible thing that happened

08:00to her, that happened to many members of her community.

08:03Look, there are still 20 hostages still held.

08:06If she was on this call right now, she would say those 20 people need to be returned immediately.

08:12Um, but at the same time, you know, she was able to connect with the people that held her

08:17and see each other as human beings.

08:20And I think in this moment, um, having somebody who has been through what she's been through

08:25and still can see the humanity in the other side of the fence can still connect, um,

08:32in this, in this empathetic way is an extraordinary thing that we need in this moment.

08:38If Liat can have hope for peace and reconciliation and a path forward, given what she's been

08:45through, we all should have, be able to have that same hope.

08:48Uh, what were some of the challenging parts for you as a filmmaker when you were documenting

08:52people, you know, quite well?

08:57I've never made a film about my family in my life.

09:01This was an extraordinarily difficult story to tell.

09:06Um, you know, the film is shot in the most intimate way.

09:11We're there, you know, at two o'clock in the morning, I'm sleeping on the floor outside

09:16of Liat's parents' hotel room.

09:19So I can document the, the middle of the night phone calls that they got from the IDF, uh,

09:25telling them that Liat wasn't, and Naveev were not on the list that day.

09:29This family invited myself and our film team into their lives at the worst possible moment.

09:37And not only to document the, um, you know, the, the, the, the pain and suffering that

09:44they were going through, but the internal disagreements.

09:47This film, you know, this, this is a family that processed their grief in very different

09:53ways.

09:53Every member of the family has very different political views.

09:57And as a filmmaker, I wanted to, I wanted to document and reveal each one of these family

10:04members' truths, their feelings, their politics, and show what I felt was a microcosm for, of

10:13the fractures and disagreements and debates that I think families all over the world are

10:17feeling right now.

10:18But for the Bain and Atsili family, they had to confront those differences.

10:22It was life and death for their loved ones.

10:26And I hope the film offers audiences, uh, uh, a healing window into how one directly impacted

10:33family navigated those differences.

10:36Um, Brendan, I'm just curious, given, um, Israel's operation on the ground in Gaza, you have seen,

10:43uh, the devastation the war has caused, uh, Israel itself is quite isolated, uh, on the world

10:49stage.

10:50I just want to know, did you have any backlash, uh, to your film and also backlash from Israel,

10:56considering you profiled a very, very liberal family?

11:01We were the opening night film at Dak of Eve, which is the largest documentary festival in

11:07Israel.

11:08And we played our film to a sold out audience of 1500 people at the Tel Aviv Opera House.

11:14I was very nervous to bring the film to Israel.

11:19Honestly, it's been, uh, I've been nervous bringing the film everywhere, given how polarized

11:23and divided this moment is around this topic.

11:27And in that room were 1500 people applauding throughout the entirety of the film, seeing

11:35Liat's parents in the thick of their grief.

11:39And you see that grief represented, but calling for peace, calling for an end to this violence

11:46and, you know, seeking the return of the hostages.

11:49I think in that audience that there were 1500 people who felt that the Bain and Atsili family

11:57represented, uh, uh, their values and a face of Israeli society that was not being portrayed

12:05in the media.

12:06And so, um, for, for, for the audience at that festival, it was very warmly received.

12:12And I think this film, you know, we've now screened the film.

12:15We, we, we premiered the film at the Berlin Film Festival.

12:18We won the top prize at the festival.

12:21We, we premiered it in North America, Tribeca.

12:24We've been screening it all over the world.

12:25And I think the fact that this family has empathy and, and, and wants peace, self-determination,

12:34security for Israelis and Palestinians, and have, have been through this direct experience.

12:40It's a, it's a narrative that, um, I think is reaching across, uh, you know, geographical

12:47and political lines in a moment that, as we know, is deeply divided.

12:51And people are experiencing, uh, you know, one narrative or the other.

12:57This film is, I hope, a unifying space.

13:00Yeah.

13:00Just, I think seeing from the, the different characters, uh, not characters, these are real

13:04people, uh, that you see in the film.

13:05It does, uh, tend to give one hope, uh, uh, Brandon, we're going to have to leave it there.

13:09Thank you so much for joining us on the program today.

13:13Thank you for having me.

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