'Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk' Courtesy of Kino Lorber Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment The war in Gaza - which began with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, in which some 1,200 Israelis were murdered and 250 were taken hostage, and continued for the next two years, during which the Israeli response claimed the lives of approximately 70,000 Palestinians - has largely faded from the news since the adoption of a Gaza peace plan in October that resulted in the freeing of 20 Israeli hostages in return for the release of 2,000 incarcerated Palestinians. But the aforementioned traumatic events are at the center of three very different but worthwhile nonfiction films - Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, Holding Liat and Coexistence, My Ass! - each of which could land on the best documentary feature Oscar shortlist that will be announced Dec. 16 Related Stories TV Ego Nwodim to Host 2026 Film Independent Spirit Awards Movies Tarik Saleh Closes His Cairo Trilogy With a Warning About the Post-Truth Age in Sweden's Oscar Hopeful 'Eagles of the Republic' 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 expat in Paris, documents her yearlong video correspondence with Fatima Hassouna, a young photojournalist in the region. (The two were connected after Farsi tried to get into Gaza to document the situation there but was prevented from entering by an Israeli blockade.) The film is technologically janky - Farsi records her conversations with Hassouna by filming her cellphone's WhatsApp application, with sound and video frequently freezing or cutting out 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. A tragic spoiler: Hassouna was killed by an Israeli bombing just a day after learning from Farsi that the film had been invited to have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. A month later, at that fest's opening ceremony, jury president Juliette Binoche paid tribute to Hassouna: "She should have been here among us this evening." HOLDING LIAT Holding Liat Tribeca On Oct. 7, 2023, Liat Beinin Atzili, an Israeli history teacher 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 - which was 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 impotence in their effort to secure her release. Her father, Yehuda, is a particularly compelling character, traveling to Washington, D.C., to lobby American politicians to intervene on behalf of his daughter, while also, against the wishes of some of the other hostages' advocates, criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for what he regarded as Israel's unacceptable response in 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 award, and subsequently screened at the Tribeca Festival in June. COEXISTENCE, MY ASS! Coexistence, My Ass! Philippe Bellaiche Canadian filmmaker Amber Fares profiles Noam Shuster Eliassi, a young Israeli woman who was raised in a village in which Israelis and Arabs live side by side and who became fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and English. After studying abroad - full disclosure: She and this writer overlapped at Brandeis University - and pursuing a career in diplomacy, Eliassi returned to Israel and began performing stand-up comedy, hoping that laughter might be an even more effective way of bringing people together. (One of her more memorable lines, delivered at a Palestinian comedy fest: "I'm only staying for seven minutes, not 70 years.") But she also finds herself caught between two worlds, with some Israelis treating her as a traitor and some Palestinians hesitant to embrace her. The film premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression, and it later played in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, winning the Golden Alexander Award for best documentary. This story first appeared in a November stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Subscribe Sign Up Oscars 2026 Tarik Saleh Closes His Cairo Trilogy With a Warning About the Post-Truth Age in Sweden's Oscar Hopeful 'Eagles of the Republic' Steven Spielberg 'Jaws' Auction: Two Lo