Tom Shoval talks about plans to give hostage doc ‘Letter to David’ a new ending

It’s been an emotional few days for Israeli director Tom Shoval, whose old friend David Cuneo was among 20 surviving Israeli hostages released from Gaza on Monday after two years in captivity.

Shuval, who first befriended Cunio and his twin brother Eitan when they starred in his first film in 2013 youthshas been at the forefront of efforts to ensure his friend’s plight is not forgotten through his 2025 film Letter to David.

“I think everything is about yesterday and today is about closure in some way,” Shoval told Deadline on Tuesday evening.

“When I was making the film, it was without knowing what was going to happen or if it was going to come back… I always believed in that but you wait for this to come, and then it comes… I feel like I’m closing a lot of circles.”

Monday’s release marks the end of the ordeal that began on October 7, 2023, with the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were kidnapped.

Kuneo, along with his wife Sarah, their two-year-old twin daughters, his brother Ariel and his partner Yehudi, were among 76 people kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz four miles (7 km) from the Gaza border, while 47 other people were killed.

Letter to Davidwhich had its world premiere at the Berlinale in February 2025, was also motivated by the fact that in youths, The Kounios play brothers who kidnap a young woman in a scheme to pay off family debts.

“I felt guilty after October 7. I thought to myself: What the hell have I done, making up this story? youths “Where David kidnapped someone?” Cheval recalls. “It was like reality was slapping you with these harsh twists and turns. I was very upset about that.”

Cheval made the documentary, produced by Nancy Spielberg, as a personal letter to his friend and with the aim of drawing attention to his situation, as the hostage crisis continued and became normalized.

It builds a portrait of kuneo, mixing behind-the-scenes footage of kuneo youths Shooting, including during rehearsal for kidnapping scenes; Home videos of life in Nir Oz and interviews after October 7 with his family, including Sharon, who was released with their daughters in November 2023.

The report also includes a horrific account by Eitan Cuneo, who also lived in Nir Oz, about how he escaped by hiding in the safe room of his home, amid fear of dying from suffocation or being burned alive when the attackers began setting fire to the buildings.

When the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February, hopes were high that David would be about to be released under the fragile ceasefire reached on January 25.

It dissipated when the ceasefire collapsed in March and Israel resumed its military campaign in Gaza, which in total killed more than 67,000 Palestinians over two years.

About 30 hostages were released before the two-month ceasefire collapsed, including Yarden Bibas and Sagi Dekel Chen, who were also kidnapped from Nir Oz.

Both men reported seeing Kunio during their time in captivity, although the family received no news during this period of his brother Ariel.

“They moved them from one place to another, and sometimes they even met in the tunnels,” Shuval said.

“David has since said that he was mostly alone but there were periods when he was with someone. He was for two months or something with Sagi and he was also with Yarden Bibas for a week, who is his best friend and is in the film.”

Bibas’s February 1 comeback was marked by tragedy after news of the death of his wife, Sheri Silberman Bibas, and their two young sons, four-year-old Ariel and nine-month-old Kfir..

This was confirmed when the children’s bodies were returned to Israel on February 20, and their mother’s bodies were returned the next day.

New news about Kunio as well as updates regarding the other hostages meant that the film was constantly evolving and changing, even after its debut in Berlin in mid-February.

“When we showed the film in Berlin, Cherie was still missing,” recalls Shuval, who updated information in the film about the hostage situation. “We didn’t know what happened with her and the children, and then her body was returned in the second deal with the children.”

“I changed the titles of those who were released from ‘still in captivity’ to ‘released,’” he explains. “Then Sherry’s body was returned so I had to change that, which is the hardest thing I’ve ever done… It came with the realization that this is what it’s all about. It also came with this fear that one day, I might have to do the same thing to David and Ariel. “It was terrifying.”

Cheval always said that he did not consider the film finished until Cuneo returned home. It’s a pledge he now plans to back up with a new ending.

“I promised Eitan when we started shooting the movie that any time they came back, no matter what stage the movie was in, I would open it up and bring a new ending, the ending he deserved,” Shuval said.

“So, I’ll do it, not right away, because I want to give David space to heal a little bit. He also hasn’t seen the movie yet, which is also a strange situation, because I shot the movie while he was still in captivity… I think the next step is for him to see it, so he and I can finish this movie and then I’ll shoot a special ending to the movie with him.”

Cheval has not yet been able to meet Cuneo face to face, as his friend is still recovering in hospital and communicating with his family.

“They will be in the hospital for two weeks. This is a process. Someone mentioned that they are reborn, and I think that is fairly accurate. They are returning to the world,” Shuval said.

“I don’t want to be there in this very sweet, intimate moment. I want to give him the space he needs and also to the family, who haven’t seen him for two years, and his daughters. I’ll probably see him in the next few days, but I won’t bring a camera into this meeting. It will take a moment.”

Cheval also hopes to move forward with other projects that have been put on hold during this period.

“When you have an unfinished film, it’s strange to do other things, but I’ve started working on other projects and I hope to shoot something next year, although the environment for Israeli and Israeli films and projects is a bit dark. I hope that art will prevail again.”

It remains to be seen whether the Gaza peace plan brokered by President Donald Trump will also succeed in providing relief to two million people living in the Palestinian territories, which have been devastated by the Israeli military campaign.

Shoval hopes to find a path to peace: “One of the consequences of the catastrophe that we call war is that it sucks every last drop out of humanity, and so we have to fight that. We have to do everything we can to bring us closer to peace and understanding, to help the people in Gaza and the people in Israel come out of this into a new era.”