With Hasan in Gaza

Following the film screening: Q&A with film director Kamal Aljafari, moderated by Sami Khatib

Three MiniDV tapes of life in Gaza from 2001 were recently rediscovered. This footage is now a testament to a place and time that no longer exists.

What started as a search for a former prison mate from 1989 — a man lost to time and war — led to an unexpected road trip from the north to the south of Gaza with Hasan, a local guide whose fate remains unknown. As the camera moves through Gaza’s streets and landscapes, it records fleeting moments of everyday life — fragments of a reality now irreversibly altered. With Hasan in Gaza transforms this forgotten footage into a cinematic reflection on memory, loss and the passage of time, capturing a Gaza of the past and lives that may never be found again.

Conceived by: Kamal Aljafari
in collaboration with: Hasan Elboubou
Camera & Sound and in-camera editing: Kamal Aljafari
Music: Simon Fisher Turner, Attila Faravelli
Color Grading & Compositing: Yannig Willmann
Assistant Editing: Martin Arbelaez
Sound Mixing: Jochen Jezussek
Producer: Kamal Aljafari
Executive Producer: Flavia Mazzarino

„An homage to Gaza and its people,
to all that was erased and that came
back to me in this urgent moment
of Palestinian existence, or non-existence.
It is a film about the catastrophe,
and the poetry that resists.

This is my first film,
which I have never made.“
(Kamal Aljafari)

With Hasan in Gaza
Kamal Aljafari / 111 min. / 2025
(In Arabic with English subtitles)