نحن هنا – We Are Here! Young Gaza on Stage
Gaza/Westbank/Germany 2016, 55 Min.
- Written and directed by: Sabrina Dittus
- Status: Completed
- Camera: Vita Spiess, Sami Karim
- Editor: Christopher Kaps
- Production: Pepperlint Film & Rosa-Luxemburg Stiftung
- Music: Rami Washaha, Arpad Bondy, Andreas Otto
In the wake of the first Israeli attacks on Gaza in 2008/2009, 33 teenagers in Gaza noted down their experiences of the war. The project, initiated by the ASHTAR Theatre (Ramallah), resulted in a play entitled The Gaza Monologues. To date (2016), it has been performed in over 80 cities in 40 countries, including at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
As the Gaza Strip has been sealed off since 2006, most of these performances could not be performed by the original authors of the monologues, who were stuck in Gaza. Consequently, an ensemble from the ASHTAR theatre in Ramallah stood in for them.
In 2016 – after two more wars in Gaza (2012 and 2014) – the young theatre people in Gaza received another very special invitation: they were to perform their monologues in Ramallah in the West Bank, at an international youth festival. It would be the very first time that any of them would get to see the other part of their home country, one and a half hours’ drive from Gaza. It would be a dream come true. Whether they will be allowed to go or not depends on whether the Israeli occupation authorities grant them a travel permit this time.
Our film accompanies seven impressive young actors as they wait, rehearse, worry and hope. And we discover what it means to live as a young person in Gaza, under occupation, under lockdown and with three wars in five years. But the young people also talk about the beautiful things in Gaza, about the importance of theatre and art, about friendship and about love.
Screenings / Festivals
- Premiere Ramallah: 15.12.2016, Mahmoud Darwish Museum
- Premiere Gaza: 20.12.2016
- Premiere Deutschland: 2.2.2017, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
- Fünf-Seen-Film-Festival 2017
- Boston Palestine Film Festival 2017
- Arab Filmfestival Tübingen 2017
- globale Leipzig 2018
- naxos Kino Frankfurt 2018
- Entwicklungspolitischer Filmherbst Baden-Württemberg 2018
- globale Bremen 2019
World Sales
New Docs, Elina Kewitz
+49 (0)221 16819743
elina.kewitz@newdocs.de
www.newdocs.de