‘Holding Liat’ Review: A Hostage Documentary Confronts the Limits of Empathy

variety.com:

Siddhant Adlakha The contradiction between acknowledgment and difficult acceptance lies at the heart of Brandon Kramer’s documentary — about his elderly relative Yehuda Beinin dealing with his daughter Liat’s Oct.

7 abduction — which establishes numerous political parameters through observation, in an effort to conjure sentiment. It succeeds on occasion, though given its thorny subject matter, your mileage may vary.

The winner of the Berlin Film Festival’s Documentary Award, “Holding Liat” isn’t quite as revelatory or forceful as last year’s recipient (the West Bank land-grab exposé “No Other Land,” which is currently nominated for an Academy Award).

However, it wrestles even with its own place as a chronicle of an Israeli hostage family — one of two such films in this year’s lineup; the other is the much more blinkered “A Letter to David.” Kramer, by comparison, reveals a greater awareness of the political mechanics at play, and the place his movie occupies, by touching on how the pain of hostage families can be weaponized.