Michtav Le'David

A Letter to David

Berlinale Special 2025

A Letter to David is a personal cinematic letter from filmmaker Tom Shoval to David Cunio, who was taken by Hamas from the Nir Oz kibbutz on October 7, 2023, and has been held hostage in Gaza ever since. Ten years ago, David and his twin brother Eitan starred in Shoval’s award-winning debut feature film Youth (Berlinale 2013), which focused on the powerful bond between brothers and, in a tragic and unimaginable twist of fate, revolved around a kidnapping. Through unedited behind-the-scenes footage and audition tapes from that film, Shoval creates a multi-layered documentary that explores profound questions about the inexplicable connections between life and cinema, memory and reality, and the catastrophic consequences of war.

by Tom Shoval (Director, Screenplay)
with David Cunio, Eitan Cunio, Sharon Aloni-Cunio, Silvia Cunio, Luis Cunio Israel / USA 2025 Hebrew 74' Colour World premiere | Documentary form

With

David Cunio
Eitan Cunio
Sharon Aloni-Cunio
Silvia Cunio
Luis Cunio

Crew

Director	Tom Shoval
Screenplay	Tom Shoval
Cinematography	Yaniv Linton
Editing	Margarita Linton, Maya Kenig
Music	Asher Goldschmidt
Sound Design	Itzik Cohen
Producers	Alona Refua, Maya Fischer, Roy Bareket, Nancy Spielberg
Executive Producers	Roi Kurland, Gal Greenspan, Len Blavatnik, Emily Blavatnik, Jay Ruderman, Rinat Klein Maron, Dorit Hessel, Moshe Edery

Produced by

Green Productions

Playmount Productions

Photos

Tom Shoval

Born in Petach Tikva, Israel in 1981, the filmmaker graduated with a distinction from the Sam Spiegel School for Cinema and Television in Jerusalem in 2007. His debut feature film Youth premiered in the 2013 Panorama and won Best Film at the Jerusalem Film Festival. The Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu produced Shoval’s film Shake Your Cares Away, which in 2021 also won Best Film at the same festival. He wrote and directed episodes of the Israeli music series The Echo of Your Voice, and wrote the screenplay for Jake Paltrow’s June Zero.

Filmography (selection)

2005 The Hungry Heart; short film 2007 Shred of Hope; short film 2008 That’s the Spirit; short film 2011 I Will Drink My Tears 2012 Youth 2015 Milk and Honey 2016 Justification 2017 Kishuf 2020 Shake Your Cares Away 2021 The Echo of Your Voice 2023 Katya’s Hand; short film 2025 Life without Credit · Dead Language; co-writer · Michtav Le’David (A Letter to David)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025