The impact of the war between Israel and Hamas, widely covered by global media and saturation of social media platforms, is suddenly placing Middle Eastern filmmakers and their films in the spotlight of the international film festival circuit.
At Hot Docs, Canada’s largest documentary festival which kicks off this weekend, Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly presented his documentary Life is beautiful in Toronto for a North American premiere. The film follows his exile in Norway caused by an earlier regional conflict in 2014 and thwarted efforts to reunite with his family in Gaza.
“The film has unfortunately become more relevant to what’s happening these days. I was hoping to release the film in a more peaceful situation,” Jabaly said. The Hollywood Reporter. The irony is that his documentary debuted at the IDFA Festival in Amsterdam in November 2023, shortly after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel that sparked a wider conflict between Israel and Gaza that cost life to his close family and friends back home.
Jabaly pointed to cinematographer Abood Saymah, who worked on Life is beautiful, losing his life during the current conflict between Israel and Gaza. “He was killed while waiting for food aid at one of the checkpoints where people were being targeted. He lost his life and I still can’t believe that he’s not here and that he’s not with us,” the director reveals.
Afghan director Roya Sadat will have its world premiere this weekend at Hot Docs for The brutal end of peacehis documentary about four Afghan women fighting for social justice and political freedoms amid peace talks with the Taliban before the United States and coalition troops withdraw their forces from Afghanistan in 2021.
“This [documentary] comes out at a critical time, and it’s really important for people to watch it all over the world, and I hope other festivals will also screen this film,” Sadat said. THR. The filmmaker also expresses her frustration with the plight of oppressed women in Afghanistan who disappeared from the global media radar after the Taliban came to power in 2021.
“The Taliban do not represent the reality of Afghanistan, and the Afghan people are not well represented in the United States, with the exception of September 11 (2001) and the Taliban. I hope that with this film, people will better understand Afghan women,” insists Sadat.
Directors Aeyliya Husain and Amie Williams have another documentary on Afghan women at Hot Docs: An unfinished journey, which receives a North American bow in Toronto after its world premiere at FIFDH Geneva. The film follows four influential women in Afghanistan – three former MPs and a journalist – forced to flee the war-torn country once the Taliban took power and the fate of the women remaining in the country came under even greater threat.
As with Jalaby, the four exiled Afghan women in the documentary appear desperate to be separated from their families and have to…
