David Cunio and Ariel Cunio, brothers who were held hostage by Hamas and who were freed in October 2025 more than two years after they were taken captive, will be present at a screening in Berlin of a new version of Tom Shoval’s documentary about their ordeal, A Letter to David, which premiered last year at the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival.
The 76th Berlinale will run from February 12-22. A Letter to David - The Complete Version will be shown on Friday, February 20 at the Babylon Theater in Berlin.
David Cunio and Ariel Cunio were both kidnapped on October 7, 2023 from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where more than a quarter of the approximately 400 residents were either killed or abducted.
David was taken along with his wife and twin daughters, who were released in the first hostage deal in late 2023. Ariel was abducted with his girlfriend, Arbel Yehud, who was released in early 2025. The two brothers were held separately and have spoken about suffering beatings, starvation, and psychological torture for 738 days.
It is with great joy that Shoval has been able to update the movie to include their release, which he had been hoping to do ever since he made the film.
He told Deadline.com, “A year ago, we screened A Letter to David in the Berlinale, while David and Ariel were still being held hostage in Gaza. We did not know their condition, and the screening took place amid a horrific and catastrophic war. It was an intense screening of a film without an ending, naturally marred by anxiety and uncertainty. A Letter to David was a film of outcry, a film of ‘urgency’.”
He added, “Now we are returning to the Berlinale together with David, Ariel, and the Cunio family, closing an unimaginable circle. This is a deeply moving moment that is difficult for me to put into words. Reality once again intervened, making it possible to complete the film and give it the ending we had hoped for. We thank the Berlinale for this moving gesture – for the opportunity to screen the film in its new version, from a different perspective: one that looks back at what was, and forward with an open heart.”
Shoval first got to know David when he and his twin brother Eitan starred in his first full-length film, Youth, which premiered at the Berlinale in 2013, to great acclaim. In a bizarre coincidence which later seemed painful, the Cunios played teen brothers who kidnap a classmate to ransom her and pay off their father’s debts.
They received great critical praise for their acting and wanted to continue in the profession, but Shoval said in an interview with the Jerusalem Post last year that when they learned they learned that roles for brothers were rare and that they would have to work separately, they decided not to pursue this career.
A Letter to David does not use graphic footage from October 7, but features interviews with Eitan Cunio, who narrowly escaped death, as well as with the entire Cunio family, who are immigrants from Argentina. There is also footage of David and Eitan from the set of Youth, as well as videos of the family and their friends in Nir Oz that the twin brothers filmed in 2012 for a proposed “making of” documentary.
This footage, which was never used, shows the Cunio brothers at home, as well as several of their friends who were abducted and killed, including Shiri Bibas, who was murdered by terrorists along with her two children, Kfir and Ariel, and her husband, Yarden Bibas, who was captured and released.
Releasing the right ending after David comes home
The screening of the updated version of the film was organized by the Future Narrative Fund and Babylon cinema, in cooperation with the Berlinale, Shoval, Green Productions, and producer Nancy Spielberg of Playmount Productions. A Letter to David – The Complete Version was produced by Green Productions and Spielberg.
“Throughout our filming, Tom would always say ‘when’ David comes home, we will open the film and give it the right ending. He never said ‘if’. And that was the language and mindset we all desperately held on to… with hope,” Spielberg told Deadline.com. “And then, after 738 days in captivity, it was time to deliver A Letter to David to its intended recipient. A few days after David’s release, his wife told him about the film. He was so incredibly emotional and touched by the fact that his story was being shared everywhere. Tom waited patiently until David told him he was emotionally prepared to watch the film. His reaction was one of immense gratitude. Knowing he was loved. Knowing his family fought without end for his release. It was one tiny step toward his healing.”
At the emotional premiere screening of A Letter to David last year at the Berlinale, when it was feared that both brothers might no longer be alive, Shoval said, “I promised Eitan that this is a film with no end. When David and Ariel come back, I will shoot the ending. So it’s waiting.”
Last year, at the opening night of the Berlinale, a huge, gala event, the festival’s director, Tricia Tuttle, took part in a vigil for the hostages on the red carpet, along with several German actors. Tuttle and the actors held photos of David with his wife and children. The group behind the vigil, Bring David Home Now, released an open letter signed by more than 100 professionals – including actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, directors Michel Franco and Ari Folman, and producer Max Wiedemann.
The letter read, in part, “As the film festival starts, and Berlin becomes full of life and art, we call for the immediate release of David, his brother Ariel, and the many dozens of Israeli hostages who are being held in the tunnels of Gaza. We pray that one day David would be able to visit Berlin and enjoy it again.”
This year, their prayer will be answered.