Gabès Cinema Fen Screens Kamal Aljafari's 'With Hasan in Gaza': A Palimpsest of Memories and Resistance

Kamal Aljafari's film "With Hasan in Gaza" is being shown at Cinémadart Carthage as part of a retrospective of the 8th Gabès Cinéma Fen festival. The screening series, which continues through June, features filmmakers from Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, and Switzerland. The program explores themes of memory, exile, survival, and resistance against war, colonization, and erasure. Following his previous work "A Fidai Film," which examined colonial domination through archives, Aljafari turns to the intimate in "With Hasan in Gaza." He uses his own film archives from a 2001 trip to Gaza, where he sought an old cellmate. Accompanied by a local guide, Hasan, Aljafari filmed his journey with a camcorder. Twenty years later, he assembled three MiniDV tapes into a film where the initial quest gives way to an immersion in daily life under occupation. The film opens with stark images of checkpoints and barbed wire, but quickly shifts to reveal other realities: children playing on the beach, bustling markets, and families living their lives despite the constraints of colonization. Aljafari employs an experimental approach, eschewing narration and commentary. Instead, occasional title cards provide minimal context for the journey. This formal freedom transforms the search for the former detainee into a wandering exploration of Gaza's multifaceted existence. The film captures both the fleeting innocence of childhood and the pervasive anxiety of adults. While some individuals decline to be filmed, others, particularly women, encourage Aljafari to document the destruction and violence they endure. Children eagerly engage with the camera. "With Hasan in Gaza" emphasizes human presence, moving beyond statistics to portray the complexity of lives within the territory. By avoiding a comprehensive documentary approach, Aljafari reveals the richness of individual experiences through ordinary gestures, quiet moments, glances, and silences. The handheld camera work, with its instability and off-screen elements, imbues the Palestinian subjects with a sense of humanity.

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Loin des représentations souvent réduites aux chiffres, « With Hasan in Gaza » restitue une présence humaine.