The documentary Letter to David, which tells the story of David Cunio – abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz to Gaza on October 7 and held captive since – has been selected to open the Berlinale Special program at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Directed by Tom Shoval, the film is produced by a team that includes Nancy Spielberg. It is slated for broadcast later this year on Israeli cable provider HOT.
Shoval has a personal connection to David Cunio and his twin brother, Eitan Cunio, who starred in Shoval’s debut feature film, Youth. The film explores the bond between two brothers who kidnap a young woman as they struggle with their family's dire financial situation. Letter to David incorporates archival footage from behind the scenes of Youth, which also premiered at the Berlinale in 2013.
“I am deeply moved by Berlinale’s decision to screen Letter to David as a special presentation, 12 years after David and Eitan Cunio attended the world premiere of Youth at the festival,” Shoval said. “David Cunio, his brother Ariel, and the other hostages face constant danger with each passing day. I hope the film and its screening will shed light on their plight. Securing their release is the most urgent priority.”
In the shadow of the current hostage deal and the accompanying cease-fire, the festival also included an American documentary about Liat Atzili, who was kidnapped on October 7 in Gaza and returned to Israel about two months later, only to discover that her husband Aviv had been murdered by Hamas terrorists. The film Holding Liat was created by director Brandon Kramer and will be screened as part of the prestigious festival's Special program.
It centers on Liat's personal story and her rehabilitation process accompanied by her father, Yehuda Benin. The two try to come to terms with the unimaginable trauma, and also to restore their faith in human morality and their vision for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Another Israeli representative at the festival is Homes, a film by Veronica Nicole Tettelbaum – a German-Israeli co-production with the participation of Yael Eisenberg, Tali Sharon and Evgenia Dodina, which is also included in the forum. It is a black-and-white drama that follows a journey into the past of an immigrant from the Soviet Union who identifies as gender non-binary and wonders about the meaning of the concept of home.
Meanwhile, Israeli-American director Ido Fluk will take center stage at this year's Berlinale with his film Cologne 75, which will be presented at a special gala. The period musical drama, produced by filmmaker Oren Moverman, recreates the efforts of a young local woman (played by Mala Amada) to stage a jazz concert by American pianist Keith Jarrett – a cultural landmark in the history of the city of Cologne.
Also worth mentioning is the documentary film by the Frenchman Guillaume Ribot, All I Had Was Nothing, which returns to Claude Lanzmann's monumental work Shoah and combines quotes from the filmmaker with unearthed photographic materials.
Last year, the heads of the Berlinale Film Festival were forced to face various political complaints from all sides, especially regarding the documentary Dahomey winning the Golden Bear. Upon winning, director Mati Diop shouted from the stage "I stand with Palestine" at the awards ceremony. There was also a reprimand speech by the creators of No Other Land, Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, who won the Best Documentary award in the Panorama Audience Awards.
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The festival's incoming director, Tricia Tuttle, addressed the issue in an interview with the British Guardian, noting that some filmmakers wondered how free they would be to express themselves in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"We are the Berlinale Festival that they have always known and loved," she is quoted as saying, "which means pluralism and embracing different perspectives." In light of this, the inclusion of the documentary project Yalla Parkour as part of the Panorama framework stands out. The American director of Palestinian origin, Areeb Zuaiter, put together photographic documentation of parkour exploits by a group of teenagers throughout Gaza, long before the extensive destruction it suffered in the past year. Many of the buildings filmed in the film as the site of the local parkour artists' leaps and jumps no longer exist, and some of the participants themselves were killed during the recent war.