‘With Hasan in Gaza’ Is a Cinematic “Homage to Gaza and Its People” (Exclusive Locarno Trailer)

Images speak louder than words, they say. A trailer for With Hasan in Gaza from Palestinian filmmaker Kamal Aljafari ( A Fidai Film , Recollection , An Unusual Summer ), which world premieres in the competition lineup of the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival on Aug. 7, abides by that saying.

Below, THR can exclusively reveal the first trailer for the film ahead of the Swiss festival, which runs Aug. 6-16.

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"Three MiniDV tapes of life in Gaza from 2001 were recently rediscovered," reads a synopsis of the movie on the Locarno festival website. "What started as a search for a former prison mate from 1989 led to an unexpected road trip from the north to the south of Gaza with Hasan, a local guide whose fate remains unknown."

The summary also promises "a cinematic reflection on memory, loss, and the passage of time, capturing a Gaza of the past and lives that may never be found again."

Aljafari, in a director's note, describes the film as "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." And he highlights: "It is a film about the catastrophe, and the poetry that resists."

The movie was produced by the filmmaker through his Kamal Aljafari Productions, with the support of the Doha Film Institute, Cnap – Image/mouvement, the Gwaertler Stiftung, the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, the Media City Film Festival's Chrysalis Fellowship, and Atelier 105 – Light Cone.

With Hasan in Gaza

The trailer for With Hasan in Gaza now provides a first glimpse of some of the images captured on this trip through Gaza, including kids approaching the camera and a drive along the coastline.

"I went to Gaza 24 years ago searching for a friend, without an address," the filmmaker says. "This is my first film, which I have never made."

Check out the trailer for With Hasan in Gaza below.

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