With Hasan in Gaza

Palestinian children laugh on the beach as the rising sea surrounds them. Rediscovered MiniDV tapes from 2001 reveal Gaza as it once was: vibrant, intimate, yet marked by constant threat. Filmmaker and artist Kamal Aljafari travels with Hasan Elboubou from north to south in search of an old friend, capturing along the way the textures of daily life—markets, cafés, beaches, and smiling faces—interrupted by artillery fire and the shadow of violence.

What emerges in WITH HASAN IN GAZA is a cinematic meditation on memory and a tragic time capsule of a place and people irreversibly changed. Mirroring today’s cruelties, the careful imagery and meditative score by Simon Fisher Turner and Attila Faravelli document the beauty and dignity of ordinary life, even as the cycle of destruction remains palpable. A poignant and essential chronicle of loss and endurance in a world increasingly fractured.

Aljafari’s films have screened at major festivals such as Locarno and Viennale, and have received prestigious awards from FIDMarseille and Visions du Réel. WITH HASAN IN GAZA premiered in Locarno, where it won the Europa Cinemas Label.