I fervently hope it wins. It certainly deserves global recognition. It is a film full of humanity. It was very well received and after the initial shocked silence at the end, the film got a deserved round of applause from the audience.
It is a superb collection of short films, each by different directors featuring a mixture of styles - fact, fiction, animation but all based on the raw reality of war if you can call it a war. More like an unmerciful slaughter, which these directors, actors, musicians and ordinary people worked through to generate this body of work. I found it very emotional and was almost constantly tearful. The stories have the running theme of life and death during the ongoing genocide.
One of the shorts features a young man who sleeps in a body bag. At first, as he takes it from the morgue they tell him he isn't allowed to leave with it. He asks if he dies will he get one back. After they reply in the affirmative he asks why can't he have it before he dies to allow him to get some use out of it. We called this humour 'Belfast Humour' during our recent conflict.
Our war devastated many lives through death, prison, torture, disability and mental health problems. Our experience, despite the enormous heartache and misery, almost pales into insignificance compared to the brutal extent of the collective punishment meted out to the defenseless civilians of Palestine. There just is no comparison.
Another film, this time based on hope and love was a difficult watch. We watch as a lady director looks for a positive message for her film. Music is the answer and it's lovely and melodic, charming the cinema-goer as well as provoking smiles and laughter from neighbouring children in the refugee camp. It doesn't sound like a difficult watch but to an onlooker who sits in comfort, the juxtaposition of the terror on the screen and the cosiness of the theatre sparks acute emotion, almost distress.
Some of the most powerful films were animations. Others which affected me greatly were the ones which made use of footage from things like dance classes before October 7th mixed with recent footage but featuring the same people. How their lives have changed, if they survived at all.
Like something out of a dystopian science fiction movie, the landscape of Gaza provides the perfect set for the short films. Who needs CGI when Israel can create a barren, horrific, nightmarish landscape? The artists make the most out of it. Films of actors looking for fictional relatives under rubble are just as real as those of real footage of victims getting rescued from rubble in the aftermath of airstrikes. Barbarism is laid bare and skilful artistry is the lens.
⏩ Simon Smyth is an avid reader and collector of books.
Good stuff Simon.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy this 'cultural section' of the blog if I may call it that without being pretentious.
Great finishing line
Thanks for running the review Anthony and for your encouragement.
DeleteWhen I was at another Palestinian film called The Teacher, the director or leading actor (they were both at the Q&A) emphasised the importance of supporting Palestinian culture as one of the ways to support Palestine in general.
The Guardian had an article on an exhibition of 25 Palestinian artists in New York at the moment. “They are artists, they need to create art,” said the Biennale organizers, who requested to be identified as the Forbidden Museum. “We need to help artists stand up for themselves with their skills. Just because you are an artist in the middle of a genocide doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to do.”
Art and culture are vital to a functioning society as you know and very much part of the movement to fight against the injustice dished out by Israel.