With Hasan in Gaza

In 1989, during the first Palestinian Intifada, artist and filmmaker Kamal Aljafari was imprisoned by the Israeli Occupation, where he met a man named Abderrahim. Twelve years later, he travelled to Gaza with only a name, a photograph, a local guide and a camcorder to try and locate him. Untouched for a quarter of a decade, the three MiniDV tapes of the travelogue now form WITH HASAN IN GAZA, an urgent, beautiful and devastating paean to a place and a people that have suffered unspeakable ruination. From beaches, cars, homes, cafes and shop stalls, Aljafari enquires about Abderrahim, while his lively camerawork captures quiet moments of dignified daily life and the smiling faces of children, each as beautiful to behold as they are agonising. Save for delicate, intermittent passages with music by composers Simon Fisher Turner and Lucy Railton and an extraordinary closing text, the film entirely eschews overt commentary and other didactic elements, leaving space instead for the raw power of this mournful, haunting, yet always spirited footage. What we see and share feels devastating not in spite of its beauty, but precisely because of it. In the words of the filmmaker: “This is my first film, which I never made.” (Jesse Cumming)

In the presence of Kamal Aljafari.
The conversation on the 24th of October will be sign interpreted. Prior registration requested. More info here. 

Kamal Aljafari: VISIT IRAQ (2003, K), THE ROOF (2006), BALCONIES (2007, K), PORT OF MEMORY (2010), RECOLLECTION (2015), IT’S A LONG WAY FROM AMPHIOXUS (2019, K), AN UNUSUAL SUMMER (2020), PARADISO, XXXI, 108 (2023, K), UNDR (2024, K), A FIDAI FILM (2024)