The hostages have been held in Gaza for more than 655 days, and while we see their families on the news every day, it’s hard to imagine how they can function at all with all the stress they are under.
But I understood their plight much better after seeing Brandon Kramer’s acclaimed documentary Holding Liat, which will be shown on Yes Docu on July 30 at 10 p.m., and will also be available on Yes VOD and Sting+.
The movie, which was produced by director Darren Aronofsky, among others, is a look at how the American-Israeli family of one hostage, Liat Beinin Atzili, coped when she was first taken by Hamas. Atzili was abducted from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz and was released after 54 days.
Her partner, Aviv Atzili, was killed defending the kibbutz on October 7 and his body was abducted into the Strip.
Most of the focus of the documentary is about her father, Yehuda Beinin, who moved with his wife to Israel from the US decades ago and found himself thrust into a spotlight he never asked for, as he traveled the US, lobbying lawmakers to make the hostage release a priority.
It’s a candid look at a family living a reality beyond its worst nightmares, and will have special resonance for Americans in Israel.
But international audiences have also connected to this gripping film, which won the documentary award at the Berlinale this year, a prestigious international honor.
Sweetie’s Party – Kan11, Kan BOX
As the government goes through its umpteenth crisis in the last few years – and the vast majority of the public, convinced that it’s all business as usual, can’t be bothered to do more than yawn – it’s the perfect time for a new season of the Knesset parody series, Sweetie’s Party (in Hebrew, Motek bul B’Emtza – “Sweetie right in the middle”). Kan11 just announced the series will return with its second season on August 10 in the evenings, and will also be available on its website (kan.org.il) and its Kan BOX service.
The series tells the story of a reality TV star/social media influencer, Motek Mordechai (Gily Itskovitch), who, through a not-so-improbable series of events, becomes a Knesset member for a party that boasts of representing “the extreme center.”
While she has a million followers, that hasn’t translated into the money that her broke family needs, and when Motek discovers that her salary and perks amount to more money each month than she could earn in years at a regular job, she’s thrilled.
Combine that with the fact that she can hire everyone she’s ever known, she is determined to stay in, no matter what it takes.
Based on the teaser trailer for the new season that was just released, Motek has managed to hang on and then some – she’s going to be appointed to be a government minister, which will bring her salary to even more astronomical heights.
Frankly, this character is far more qualified to run a ministry than many who have been doing so for years. Watching it all play out may make you laugh at the grim reality of entrenched corruption that it seems no one can reform.
Jaws @ 50 – Disney+
Just when you thought it was safe to watch a documentary – which, as some will remember, is a play on the famous tagline for the Jaws sequel, “Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water… ” – there’s an extremely entertaining new documentary about the making of the original: Jaws @ 50, available to stream on Disney+.
Fans of the classic movie, which is celebrating 50 years since its release this summer, won’t want to miss this one, which reveals a huge amount of behind-the-scenes lore.
While the movie was the biggest blockbuster up to that time, and has been thrilling audiences ever since, its shoot was marred by technical foul-ups with the mechanical shark and problems with the weather.
It seemed that it might end the career of its young director, a guy named Steven Spielberg who had only made one previous feature film, The Sugarland Express.
He is interviewed extensively in the film, and reveals that years after it was released, he was still traumatized by the pressure he felt making it, and would sneak onto tours of the Universal lot that featured the shark to soothe himself.
While much is made in the film of the technical problems on set, it’s also fascinating to see how Spielberg took charge of the script.
One of the most memorable pieces of dialogue is the passage by Quint (Robert Shaw), the boat’s captain, about how he served on the USS Indianapolis, the battleship that was sunk by the Japanese and much of whose crew was devoured by sharks.
One of many scriptwriters tasked with improving the screenplay added it and Spielberg knew it was a brilliant idea but needed to be rewritten.
He brought in John Milius, who gave him an eight-page monologue which was much too long. Eventually, Shaw himself, who was a playwright as well as an actor, took a crack at it, and that speech is a show stopper in a movie best known for its action. If only the directors of today’s blockbusters took such care with their screenplays!
Untamed – Netflix; Wild Crimes – Disney+
Two new series are now running about crimes in US national parks, and what they lack in subtlety, they more than make up for in beautiful scenery.
In Netflix’s Untamed, Eric Bana stars as a National Parks Service agent at Yosemite, investigating the murder of a Native American young woman found dead in what looks at first like a rock-climbing accident.
It’s a by-the-book police procedural – he’s a troubled divorced dad, he’s got a tough commander (Sam Neill), and he takes his job more seriously than his colleagues – but it has a suspenseful story, and you can’t beat the Yosemite scenery.
Wild Crimes on Disney+ is a documentary series that looks at murders in the national parks, focusing on one case per season. It’s a good reminder, if you needed one, that there can be more to accidents than meets the eye.