The war in Gaza – which began with the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 Israelis were murdered and 250 taken hostage, and continued for the next two years, during which the Israeli response cost the lives of around 70,000 Palestinians – has largely disappeared from the news since the adoption of a Gaza peace plan in October that resulted in the release of 20 Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of 2,000 incarcerated Palestinians. But the aforementioned traumatic events are the focus of three very different but interesting non-fiction films: Put your soul on your hand and walk, Hold Liat And Coexistence, my ass! – each of which could make the Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature to be announced on December 16.
PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK
No film has offered a more powerful portrait of life in Gaza during the Gaza War than this one, in which Sepideh Farsi, an Iranian expatriate in Paris, documents her year-long video correspondence with Fatima Hassouna, a young photojournalist from the region. (The two were connected after Farsi attempted to enter Gaza to document the situation there, but was prevented from entering by an Israeli blockade.) The film is technologically shaky — Farsi records his conversations with Hassouna by filming his cellphone’s WhatsApp app, with the audio and video frequently frozen or cut off altogether — but it nevertheless offers a haunting window into the daily life and losses of an innocent Palestinian caught in the crossfire of a terrifying conflict. Tragic spoiler: Hassouna was killed by Israeli bombing just a day after learning from Farsi that the film had been invited to make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. A month later, during the opening ceremony of this festival, the president of the jury, Juliette Binoche, paid tribute to Hassouna: “She should have been among us this evening”.
LIGHT POSTS
Hold Liat
Tribeca
On October 7, 2023, Liat Beinin Atzili, an Israeli history professor and Holocaust educator based with her family on a kibbutz near the border with Gaza, was taken hostage by Hamas, along with her husband, Aviv Atzili. This film – directed by Brandon Kramer, a distant relative of the couple – follows Liat’s parents, siblings and children as they navigate feelings of trauma, uncertainty and helplessness in their efforts to secure her release. Her father, Yehuda, is a particularly compelling character, traveling to Washington, DC, to pressure American politicians to intervene on his daughter’s behalf, while criticizing, against the wishes of some of the hostages’ other advocates, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for what he sees as Israel’s unacceptable response to Gaza. The film, which counts Darren Aronofsky among its producers, premiered in February at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Berlinale Documentary Film Prize, and then at the Tribeca Film Festival in June.
COEXISTENCE, MY ASS!
Coexistence, my ass!
Philippe Bellaiche
Canadian filmmaker Amber Fares portrays Noam Shuster Eliassi, a young Israeli who grew up in a village where Israelis and Arabs live side by side and who speaks fluent Hebrew, Arabic and English. After studying abroad—full disclosure: she and this writer crossed paths at Brandeis University—and pursuing a career in diplomacy, Eliassi returned to Israel and began performing stand-up, hoping that laughter might be an even more effective way to bring people together. (One of her most memorable lines, delivered at a Palestinian comedy festival: “I only stay for seven minutes, not 70 years.”) But she also finds herself caught between two worlds, with some Israelis calling her a traitor and other Palestinians reluctant to accept her. The film premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize for Freedom of Expression, and then screened in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, winning the Golden Alexander Award for Best Documentary.
This story first appeared in a November standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
