Filmmaker Areeb Zuaiter was fascinated with the videos of people doing parkour in Gaza, so she reached out and got into contact with one of the filmmakers and participants Ahmed Matar. The film charts their friendship before the destruction of Gaza by the Israeli military.
This is a very bitter sweet film. While the bulk of the film is set from 2015 until 2023, the framing of the film is set very much in 2024. This is a kind of elegy for the places and lives lost, with all references to the dead coming from inference and a very long list of “In memory of….” Of the people connected to the film who died. As the film begins and Zuaiter talks about happiness and the smile of a young man that sucked her into all of this, we know this is going to be rather sad. How could it not considering the growing number of lives lost. You can’t help but wonder did Ahmed or any of the faces we see manage to survive the last year of bombing.
This is a one of a kind film. It’s a film that shows us the life that has been lost and acts a reminder of the ability of the Palestinians to simply survive. The places that the men perform their tricks in are all largely bombed out or partially destroyed places. The places are in ruins but these men are alive in them doing wondrous things.
To be honest I’m not certain this film would have worked had the bombing taken place. Yes it would have been a very good look at parkour in Gaza, but the weight of current events, of things outside the original intention of the film, and which were inserted into it at the last minute have made the film something weightier and even better. The film isn’t just about these guys, but instead it somehow has become about a bigger group of people.
When you see this film be aware that the pacing of the film is very deliberate and real. Zuaiter shows us conversations between herself and Ahmed as they watch videos of the acrobatics. There is no quick cutting and jumping from thing to thing. It’s the clips as Ahmed made them. They aren’t amped up by flashy editing, we watch the moves in real time. The result is everything has added weight (more so since we see them crash).
I was moved by the film.
This is the story of a bunch of people who we come to like and who we fear. As a result, thanks to Zuaiter’s being stationed in America, a film about how we deal with people we love who are in danger on the far side of the world.
This is a staggering achievement thanks to the films utterly simple construction.
Highly reommended.
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