“Nobody can occupy the dreams of a people,” says Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi

The situation in Gaza, where 62-year-old Rashid Masharawi was born and raised in the Shati refugee camp, has spurred the filmmaker to produce From Ground Zero, an anthology of 22 short films that capture the plight of Palestinians under siege for over a year now.

From Ground Zero was screened this month at the 12th Ajyal Film Festival in Doha and at the Cairo International Film Festival, where Masharawi’s latest directorial, Passing Dreams, was the opening night title. The film is covering a lot of ground the world over. However, last month’s Dharamshala International Film Festival, dedicated to independent cinema, was denied “official permission” to screen the anthology. Earlier this year, the 77th Cannes Film Festival shunned the film because the organisers wanted to keep politics out of the official selection. In protest, Masharawi held a screening outside the festival venue and attended the event sporting a necktie made of the Palestinian keffiyeh.

A still from ‘From Ground Zero’.

Speaking on the sidelines of Ajyal, where From Ground Zero was part of a special exhibit, Masharawi asks: “Why was it cancelled [at Dharamshala]? Did they watch it or only saw its title before deciding that the film wasn’t fit for screening?” He quips: “Gandhiism is over but we still have it, not in India but elsewhere in the world (referring to the resistance and resilience of Palestinians fighting never-ending occupation).”

Immediately after a wave of Israeli attacks on Gaza began in October last year, Masharawi, who lives between Ramallah and Paris, set up a fund to help filmmakers from the region tell their stories. “It was easy for me to convince the young filmmakers to show the world what they are going through. For them, however, it wasn’t easy to follow my ideas,” he says, adding, “People want to save their lives. They want food and electricity as they move from one place to another as refugees inside Gaza.” Making cinema, Masharawi admits, wasn’t top priority for these young Gazans. But stories, he asserts, cannot wait. They have to be told.

Voices amid the rubble

From Ground Zero records the personal experiences of the filmmakers. It embraces various forms — fiction, documentary, cinematic experiments, animation, video art and even a story told with marionettes. “Every idea was welcome,” says Masharawi. “Our resources were seriously limited. We had to make do with what we had and innovate.”

A still from ‘From Ground Zero’.

The subjects that the anthology film deals with reflect the diversity of the directors. Among them are painters, theatre professionals, writers and filmmakers. 

“The selection was focused more on the stories than on the personnel,” Masharawi continues. “I insisted that we should tell untold stories in an artistic way.”

Nothing represents the spirit of Palestine more than Awakening, a film that artist Mahdi Karirah contributed to. It emerged from rubble, literally. Karirah’s home was bombed. All his marionettes, tools and colours were destroyed. He picked up things from the garbage, created marionettes and made the film. “This is resistance,” says Masharawi. “Nobody can occupy these people. They are fighting for their lives. They have a life. They are life.”

Not everybody who wanted to be a part of the project made the cut. “Many aspirants were not selected. Some who were could not complete their film,” Masharawi recalls. “People sometimes want to complain and spark angry political debates. For sure, all this is in From Ground Zero but we are not saying anything directly. When you see the film, you will say that it is about genocide. I do not have to say it. I do not want to use the methods of television news. I would rather employ purely cinematic means to make my point.”

A still from ‘Passing Dreams’.

Cinema as a tool

That is precisely what the seasoned director has done in his latest, Passing Dreams, a simple, gentle and non-confrontational ‘Palestinian road movie’ about a 12-year-old boy in the Qalandia refugee camp in East Jerusalem who sets out to search for his missing pigeon.

“The boy goes to Bethlehem and Jerusalem before he ends up in Haifa [where the original owner of the pigeon lives],” says Masharawi. “The film is not about the pigeon. It is about the region. It is about the beauty of Palestine’s landscape, about its problems, about its history and about the primacy of hope.”

Passing Dreams, Masharawi reveals, was filmed on real locations before October 7 last year — in a refugee camp, in Bethlehem, in the old city of Jerusalem near the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The film was in post production even as Gaza was battered and the producer-director soon got busy with From Ground Zero. 

Masharawi, who has been making films for 40 years and is a role model to an entire generation of Palestinian directors, swears by cinema as a tool of record and resistance. “Cinema is essential when you want to talk about history and memory,” he says. “The stories we tell enable us to assert our identity and defend our culture. Nobody can occupy the dreams and imagination of a people.”

His career is a testament to freedom, defiance and assertion. “I never take permission to film,” he says. “Seeking permission would be tantamount to legitimising the occupation. It is my country. I shoot when and where I want. I know that the authorities can create problems, but this, no matter what, is my land.”

The writer is a New Delhi-based film critic.