Palestinian director at Cannes: Gaza filmmakers are 'the story'

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
23 May 2024 11:42

Munir Atallah, of US-based Watermelon Pictures, expresses the hope of bringing the family portrait to North American audiences, adding that Palestinians have "for too long been shut out by the gatekeepers of the industry."

Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi (AFP)

Palestinian film director Rashid Masharawi handed the camera to filmmakers inside Gaza as part of the project which he presented at the Cannes Film Festival in France, saying, "They are the story."

"They were fighting to protect their lives, their families, to search for food, for wood to make a fire," said Masharawi about his collection of short films called "Ground Zero" showing the Israeli aggression and genocide in Gaza.

One of the short films showed a displaced mother placing her child in a large white bucket and bathing her with a clean Turkish coffee pot, while another showed a man retelling his 24-hour ordeal under the rubble after the building he was in was struck.

Masharawi described directing the 20 teams in Gaza from abroad as "very, very, very difficult," noting, "Sometimes we needed to wait one week to 10 days just to be in contact with somebody, or just to have internet to upload material."

At times, the teams were away from the cameras and busy searching for a tent, finding insulin for a director's mother, or "an ambulance to go and save some kids."

The short films are just a few of the several Palestinian tales being screened at the Cannes festival, including Mahdi Fleifel's Greek refugee drama "To A Land Unknown."

Shut out by the 'gatekeepers'

At Cannes, with Palestinian cinema not having its own tent, Algeria made space for the filmmakers at the other end of the international market in Cannes.

Norway-based Palestinian director Mohamed Jabaly said, "Our narrative and storytelling is more important than ever," who just finished filming "Life is Beautiful" before the war started.

He recalls that his close friend who shot the last scene did not survive the war as "he was killed while waiting for food aid."

Munir Atallah, of US-based Watermelon Pictures, expresses the hope of bringing the family portrait to North American audiences, adding that Palestinians have "for too long been shut out by the gatekeepers of the industry."

Cherien Dabis is one Palestinian who was able to capture audiences in the US. She made the 2009 film "Amreeka" and co-directed the hit Hulu series "Ramy", but her latest film was disrupted by the war on Gaza.

Meanwhile, Ala' Abu Ghoush, one of the crew members on the ground in the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah, made a documentary about the stalled film, which they are calling "Unmaking Of".

"The film is really asking the question: What is the importance of doing films and art in this kind of situation, in this war?" said Abu Ghoush.

The city of Cannes has banned protests during the 11-day event, and private security is scheduled to be monitoring competition jurors, including Eva Green and Lily Gladstone, to prevent activists from reaching them.

The festival will also not distribute any pins representing solidarity with Gaza or Israeli captives.

Thierry Frémaux, the chief of the festival, reported during a press conference a night before the festival opens that it was decided the festival would be hosted "without polemics", ensuring that the main focus of the event is only film and that "other polemics" are not of concern.

That has not prevented Cannes-bound artists like Omar Sy from commenting on social media. "There is nothing that justifies the killing of children in Gaza or anywhere,” he posted recently on Instagram, urging elected authorities to end the attack on Rafah.