It has been an emotional few days for Israeli director Tom Shoval whose longtime friend David Cunio was among 20 living Israeli hostages released from Gaza on Monday after two years of captivity.

Shoval, who first befriended Cunio and his twin brother Eitan when they starred in his 2013 first feature Youth , was at the forefront of efforts to ensure his friend’s plight was not forgotten with his 2025 film A Letter to David .

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

“When I was making the film, it was without knowing what was going to happen and whether he was going to come back… I always believed in that but you’re waiting for this to come, and then it comes… I’m feeling like I’m closing a lot of circle

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