GAZA MON AMOUR

Issa (Salim Daw) is sixty, a fisherman in Gaza, and unmarried. For a long time he has secretly loved Siham (Hiam Abbass), who works as a seamstress at the market, and has finally decided to court her. Then one night he pulls an ancient bronze statue of Apollo from the sea – with an erect member. He hides it in his flat, but the authorities pick up the trail of the find, and Issa suddenly has other worries than his shyness. In “Gaza mon amour” (Palestine 2020), twin brothers Tarzan and Arab Nasser tell a late-life love story in a city under blockade.

The comedy is quiet and grows out of everyday life: power cuts, interrogations, the sister who keeps bringing round marriage candidates. The Nassers, who themselves come from Gaza, show the city without the images familiar from the news. The film premiered in 2020 at the Venice Film Festival, then screened in Toronto; it was Palestine’s submission for the Oscar. “Gaza mon amour” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2020.

Shown at the 2020 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2020 · Film Archive