With Hasan in Gaza () is a 2025 documentary film produced, edited and directed by Kamal Aljafari. It documents Gaza Strip daily life in late 2001, documenting the tension between the IDF and the Palestinian population during the Second Intifada (2000–2005).
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 78th Locarno Film Festival on 7 August 2025, where it was nominated for the Golden Leopard.
Premise In November 2001, amid the Second Intifada, director Kamal Aljafari began documenting his search for a man he had been imprisoned with during 1989 in Gaza; accompanied by Hasan Elboubou, the duo documents the daily life of the Palestinian population and the high tension imposed by the IDF forces.
Aljafari only rediscovered the footage stored on three MiniDV tapes many years later.
Production Aljafari called the film "an homage to Gaza and its people, to all that was erased and that came back to me in this urgent moment of Palestinian existence, or non-existence. It is a film about the catastrophe, and the poetry that resists."
In June 2025, the film received a grant from the Doha Film Institute.
Release A trailer for the film was released on 31 July 2025. The film had its world premiere at the 78th Locarno Film Festival on 7 August 2025. It was later screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival. It will also open in November 2025.
Reception Amber Wilkinson of Screen Daily called the film "a raw but poignant snapshot of Gaza during the Second Intifada".
Writing for Cineuropa, Davide Abbatescianni argued that the film "serves less as an artistic experiment and more as a testament left by a witness," which "invites us to consider how cinema can preserve – and perhaps restore – spaces that have been physically destroyed but must remain alive in memory."
Accolades Award Year Category Recipient(s) Result Locarno Film Festival 2025 Golden Leopard With Hasan in Gaza Europa Cinemas Label
References
External links