Sitting in Palestine: Thoughts on Electrical Gaza (2015)
I think it is a personal triumph for Rosalind Nashashibi that her work resonates much beyond the borders of the Gaza Strip. How is it that a Bihari boy, born and brought up in Delhi, was able to sit with the Palestinian youth and sing with them? Feel the heat at the Rafa border, go seek the shade in graffiti-ridden walls, smell the sea.
This 13-minute meditation on 2014 Gaza is a reminder of what cinema is and what Gaza used to be. To think that all the smiles persist in the world's largest open-air jail is frankly surreal. Here, people crumble under existential weight, but there, I don't think they have the time to think about death or their place in the world. Their place is where their home is, and it reeks of death.
My hope is that when someone watches "Electrical Gaza", they see beyond the stream-of-consciousness storytelling. They see what the film actually wants them to see: that hope persists and that no bombs, no artillery can take away "home" from the people of Palestine.
You can explore more about the film on Mubi.