It all started with a search for an old acquaintance. The Palestinian filmmaker and visual artist Jamal Aljafari set out to find a man he had spent a short while with during a brief teenage imprisonment. In 2001, he wanted to meet the man again, so he travelled the Gaza Strip from North to South, accompanied by a MiniDV camera.
He did not watch the footage till a quarter of a century later. When he did, Gaza was ravaged by a brutal war, and suddenly these old pictures served as a witness to another time, often quiet and languid. It is a memory—a look into a past that no longer exists—and Aljafari decided to turn the material into a thoughtful documentary.
Echoes of a distant past
With Hasan in Gaza is kind of a Gaza road trip, because the footage turned into a lot more than just the search for the acquaintance. He takes a taxi from the Erez Checkpoint, then the main entrance to the Gaza Strip. He travels past Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun in the very north, and from there he follows the Salah ed Din highway that runs the full length of the forsaken strip of land.
It seems like an echo from a distant past. Hamas is present, but not yet in power, and the Israeli settlements were only evacuated four years after his trip. And despite the apparent tranquillity, not everything is good. In Gaza City, the shops are closed, even the pharmacy. Things have been difficult since the last intifada – meaning the one that started in the Jebalya refugee camp in December 1987 and saw the birth of Hamas.
On the beach, children play innocently with a dead fish. Their father is with them. He has just been released from eight years in Israeli prison, and tries to make up for lost time with his children.
The harsh reality draws closer as Aljafari, his driver, and Hasan, the local tour guide, head further south. They visit a family home that a grenade has demolished. It is close to one of the Israeli settlements, and right behind the fence, you see a Merkava tank. A metallic voice from the settlement instructs Palestinians in the vicinity on where to look and where to go.
It all started with a search for an old acquaintance.
Cinematic sense
The camera is handheld, and many pictures and scenes are blurred. But that makes total cinematic sense. It is part of the experience of a place where nothing can be taken for granted, and where you never know what will happen in the next picture frame. As in real life, when you reside in Gaza.
There is no real storyline, and speech is sporadic. The pictures take you here and there, with no clear goal or purpose, yet they leave the spectator with a powerful impression. The beauty of Gaza is presented in bits here and there, and all over the place, you meet friendly and hospitable people who are willing to take you along into their lives. It turns out to be a story of people trying to carve out a piece of normalcy and regular life in the middle of the occupation.
Time capsule
This documentary stands out as a valuable time capsule. Today, when you know what happened to Gaza, you get a disturbing feeling while watching these pictures, when Kamal Aljafari’s lens drifts through the daily life in a Gaza of a not-so-distant past. In one gripping sequence, you see a boy who owns a falcon or some bird of prey. A string around one foot secures the bird, and the boy grins proudly as he is surrounded by people who want to see and to hold the bird for one fleeting moment of happiness. You start thinking about where this boy is today, 25 years later? How long did he have his bird, and is the boy alive today?
Already in 2001, Gaza was shaped by violence and displacement, and in the dingy alleys and the run-down cityscape, you already feel the seeds of today’s catastrophe. Thousands of hours of footage have been made about Gaza over the years, but with this documentary, Kamal Aljafari has created an amazing relationship between the present and the past. This is not just recycled archival material, but a cleverly made picture of a looming tragedy. There is absolutely no on-screen commentary, and that is not needed. The images carry all the grim commentary, giving the viewer an excellent peek into a life full of anxiety and worry, yet never without human dignity.
