Three years after the destruction of Gaza began, Palestinian filmmaker Kamal Aljafari returns to his family home. The large television screen in the living room is showing a report about relief workers in Gaza. The shaky quality of the television images and Aljafari’s subsequent processing of the footage heighten the horror of these scenes of a society that has been entirely devastated.
Amid piles of rubble and in houses without roofs, doors, or windows, Gazans try to find a way to survive. People waiting in line for water, gathering wood for fires, cooking with whatever is available and, for the children, simply playing on whatever remains of a street. Occasionally, we hear someone talk about life there, and a little girl recites a poem about how her ruined home is too small for her dreams. The filmmaker has few words for what he sees, but the images speak for themselves.
Stills
