Interview with “Atonement” Writer/Director Reed Van Dyk and Stars Boyd Holbrook and Hiam Abbass

A Festival Surprise

Atonement turned out to be a hidden gem surprise for me at TIFF 2026. A heartbreaking but hopeful story about a family and a soldier reeling from events that connected them during the Iraq war. Based on an 2012 New Yorker article of the same name, it tells the true story of Lu Lobello, a troubled US marine seeks to reconcile with the survivors of a family his unit fired on in Iraq in 2003. Loss, guilt, forgiveness and redemption are all prevalent in Atonement, and not always resulting in the outcomes or understanding of those emotions we expect.

It’s a heavy film, told with great empathy and sincerity. And it’s also powerfully performed, both Abbass and Holbrook delivering deeply heartfelt and emotional performances. I was deeply moved by Atonement, and it was a pleasure to be able to sit down with the director and two stars to talk about it in more depth and their experience making such unforgettable cinema.

A Director’s Perspective

I asked Reed why he wanted to tell this story now? The Iraq war was decades ago, and I was curious as to why now was the time to tell this story:

I started working on this a long time ago, and I was asking myself at that time why am I following this now? Certainly war is a big subject but at the time of my writing it was really dominating the news, it wasn’t necessarily on my heart and mind in the way it is now – we’re in a different world. The world this movie is getting released into is different than when I wrote it, and its certainly striking how we continue to keep making these same mistakes and the film is certainly looking at the people in a very intimate way impacted by these mistakes.

A Conversation with the Stars

Boyd Holbrook is a personal favorite actor of mine, so it was truly an honor to get to speak with him about his career best performance in Atonement. I asked what drew him to this project and character:

I knew immediately when I read the script that is a radical perspective…it’s a character I knew I would never have the opportunity to play again and I knew that preparation for this would be everything…for me….what can I have endless curiosity for?

For Hiam Abbass, she had a number of personal reasons for wanting to be a part of Atonement. She talked about some of the things she’s lived through and shared why she felt the portrayals of her perspectives and people was so important. Not just to the story, but to her and wanting to be a part of the film:

When I read this, I felt that the development of the Arab characters in an American movie was so important and the way Reed just started to show the life of these people, show them as human beings, as normal. They have their laughing moments, they have their childhood moments, they have their motherhood moments…he gives humanity to this family.

Atonement begins its select theaters run on Oct 2nd and will release nationwide on Oct 9th. You can check out our full interview below!