“You were what was in Gaza,” he won the Best Director Award in “Look” at the Cannes Festival art

The Palestinian film “Once Upon A Time in Gaza” won the Best Director Award within the “Look” section in the 78th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival. The film is directed by the twins Tarzan and Arabs Nasser, and it witnessed its first world presentation in the official competition of the department that celebrates the various and bold cinematic sounds.

Tarzan and Arabs Nasser shared the directing award, in a move considered an appreciation for their distinguished cinematic vision, and their ability to transfer a different image from Gaza, despite the difficult circumstances in which it lives.

The two directors expressed their happiness and gratitude for this honor, noting that the cinema for them was always an attempt to survive and a life message among the rubble.

Resistance in the time of the siege

The Palestinian film “It was what was in Gaza” revolves in 2007, inside the besieged Gaza Strip, where the work follows the story of two friends trying to stay in a suffocating reality.

Yahya, a university student dreaming of escaping from the sector, works to prepare falafel in the corner of a small kitchen inside a restaurant owned by his friend Osama. He is used as a handy meat mill for grinding beans and herbs, in light of a permanent interruption of electricity, while Osama is a young man with a captivating personality, running his simple restaurant while engaging in smuggling narcotic pills using stolen prescriptions. Together, they use falafel meals to hide these pills and distribute them secretly.

In the background, they are pursued by a corrupt policeman who tries to control them using his power and repressive behavior, so that their journey turns into a confrontation with corruption, in a narrative that mixes bitterness and the satirical spirit, away from direct political offering.

Gaza, which is no longer the same

During the first international screening of their movie “It was what was in Gaza” within the activities of the Cannes Film Festival, the two Palestinian directors Tarzan and Arab Nasser stated that the events of the film revolve in 2007, which is a detailed stage in the history of the Strip, as it was then under a suffocating siege, which increased the complexity of the daily life of the population and aggravated the deterioration of the living conditions

The Nasser, who left Gaza in 2012, explained that the reality depicted by the film no longer exists as it was, saying that the Strip today is facing a real humanitarian catastrophe after the outbreak of the Israeli war on October 7, 2023, which led to widespread destruction and tens of thousands of victims.

Tarzan said that the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza gradually intensified over the years, until it reached the limit of “genocide”, noting that the occupation still controls even the amount of calories allowed to enter the Strip.

Despite this tragic reality, the two directors stressed that the people of Gaza are still clinging to life, and they enjoy a remarkable ability to withstand. Tarzan stated that his father is still residing in the north of Gaza, despite the destruction of the family’s house, adding that his father was always keen to restore what was destroyed from his house as soon as any missile fell.

The two brothers pointed out that their films do not seek to present direct political speeches, but rather aim to shed light on the Palestinian person, and the details of his daily life under exceptional circumstances, and they said that what means them more is the person “who is, how he lives, and how he tries to adapt to a very cruelty reality.”

The two brothers stated that the idea of ​​the movie “It was what was in Gaza” was born in 2015, and in order to develop it for years by writing several consecutive drafts for the scenario. They explained that the goal was to present a different image of Gaza in a manner that is inspired by the spirit of Western cinema, through a simple story that highlights the details of the daily life of the sector’s population, through two or three characters. And they confirmed that the inspiration came from their original city, Gaza, where the human dimension remains present despite the occupation, the siege and the harsh conditions, stressing that the humanity of people there remains an inappropriate essence.

The two brothers, Tarzan and Arabs Nasser, who previously participated in the Cannes Festival with their short movie “Condum LE” in 2013, after 12 years of time returning to count the “Look at what” in the direction, with the movie “Was Ya what was in Gaza”, which is their third feature film.

The film is a joint international production between France, Germany, Portugal and Palestine, with the participation of Qatar and Jordan.

The next team and projects

A number of prominent actors, among them Nader Abdel -Hayy, who was known for his performance in the movie “Farah”, and Ramzi Makdisi, one of the heroes of the movie “Hunting Ghosts” who won the Best Documentary Film at the Berlin Festival, along with Majd Eid, who participated in the movie “Miqdis” winner of the award for the best documentary in the Cannes Festival.

As for the next cinematic project for the brothers Nasser, it deals with the story of 3 women from Gaza whose ways intersect in the midst of a harsh reality, and reveals their daily struggle and their continuous challenges for survival, as they highlight their strength and steadfastness in defending their most basic rights in life.