Synopsis
Gaza brings us into a unique place beyond the reach of television news reports to reveal a world rich with eloquent and resilient characters, offering us a cinematic and enriching portrait of a people attempting to lead meaningful lives against the rubble of perennial conflict.The documentary GAZA by director Garry Keane and Andrew Mc Connell is a German-Irish-Canadian co-production with Real Films, Filmoption International, Fine Point Films, gebrueder beetz filmproduktion and ZDF in cooperation with ARTE.
Through a cast of carefully chosen characters, GAZA takes an uncommon look at life inside the Strip.
The documentary GAZA by director Garry Keane and Andrew Mc Connell is a German-Irish-Canadian co-production with Real Films, Filmoption International, Fine Point Films, gebrueder beetz filmproduktion and ZDF in cooperation with ARTE.
In this uplifting film, we unfold a beautiful portrait of everyday Gazan citizens, leading meaningful lives beyond the rubble of perennial conflict. Free of the cliché of news reportage, we reveal a place of beauty amidst devastation, through the lives of its extraordinary people. Our film centres on two teenagers from opposite ends of Gaza’s social divide, Karma and Ahmed.
In Ahmed’s refugee camp makeshift home lives Gaza’s largest family of 14 sons, 22 daughters, one father and three wives. Less than 10 miles away, Karma’s plush apartment, together with her liberal mother, traditional father and three sisters tell a different story. Ahmed doesn’t look beyond Gaza for his life goals and dreams of becoming a big time fisherman on the mere three miles of restricted water beyond the coast. But as Karma gazes out to sea, she laments the unreachable opportunities that she knows lie beyond.
Alongside our two central characters, we follow a theatre director staging a production about social divides on the strip, a taxi driver, a rooftop restaurateur and twin female wedding planners. Through these ordinary, richly observed lives we gain a nuanced and complex portrait of life in this remarkable place.
Gaza may be battered and broken, but it still remains alive with colour and intrigue. A people undefeated by their circumstances our film brings together an eloquent, resilient, funny and courageous group of souls, on whose lives the world lens is often trained without ever capturing them in sharp focus.
Experienced Irish filmmaker Garry Keane and award winning photographer Andrew McConnell have embedded themselves deep within the community and culture and have established unprecedented access. They have developed a clear vision for a film they passionately want to make, the untold story of Gaza through its vibrant, undocumented people. (source www.gebrueder-beetz.de/en/prod...