Product Details

• Actors: James Miller, Saira Shah
• Directors: James Miller
• Format: PAL
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000ZDEO68
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #458,117 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Please note that this is a PAL, Region 2 DVD and requires PAL or multi-system capable DVD player. It will not play on standard North American DVD players. Please read the item technical description carefully. ----------------------------------- Synopsis: Directed by British TV cameraman James Miller, Death in Gaza was supposed to be an HBO documentary about children living in the Arab-Israeli war zone. However, Miller was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier during production. Producer Saira Shah compiles the footage and completes the film. Includes interviews with three Palestinian children living in Rafah, a war-torn city on the Gaza strip. Ahmed, Mohammed, and Najla have had their neighborhoods and families torn apart by war, while their school fosters hateful propaganda. Paramilitary organizations offer tempting opportunities for martyrdom. Death in Gaza was shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 2004.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Martyrdom makes many promises ...", December 9, 2005

By 

anomie - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Death in Gaza (DVD)

British filmmaker James Miller traveled to Palestine in 2003 to make a documentary about the affect of violence on the lives of Palestinian children. He also planned to make a companion film about Israeli children. Tragically, Miller was shot and killed by Israeli forces in Rafah while making his documentary. Consequently, the film's focus was diverted from its initial purpose. What remains is a film that is partially a tribute to the bravery and commitment of Miller, and partially a story about the poisoned lives of children growing up in Palestine.

The camera captures the atmosphere of the streets. Walls are covered with posters of militants and those killed in the conflict. When the sun sets, there's an unearthly scene as the street vendors disappear and then "paramilitaries come out at night using the dead to recruit more militants." Of course, those recruited are usually young males--some still in childhood. In one horrific scene, Saira Shah--also the film's narrator--is brave enough to interview some hooded Palestinian paramilitaries who are grooming Ahmed, a young boy to join their ranks. The paramilitaries play games with the boy and the games slide into teaching him how to hold a rocket grenade launcher. When Shah asks if it is moral to recruit young children to be terrorists, the hooded paramilitary member strokes the boy's head and chillingly responds, "don't worry about responsibility, sister, we're men, when we say goodbye to Ahmed, there are 1000s more like him."

The film shows quite clearly that children on the streets of Palestine are well aware of imminent death and that their lives are irrevocably altered by their day-to-day existence--it is common for children to write letters to their families in case they are killed. "Death in Gaza" cannot be labeled as 'pro' or 'con' either side of this mess, and the film's position is strongly anti-violence. What a tragedy that James Miller was killed, and what a loss that we will never see his intended companion piece film--displacedhuman

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The making of martyrs . . ., October 9, 2006

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death in Gaza (DVD)

This film about life among young Palestinians packs the usual punch of HBO documentaries. Celebrated British filmmakers Miller and Shah get as close to the skirmishes directed against Israeli troops as possible, capturing footage that refuses to turn away from the human cost of this particular kind of urban warfare. It is high-risk filmmaking, and we know from the start that Miller is killed by Israeli gunfire before the shooting of the film is completed.

Viewers not familiar with the Palestinian resistance will be shocked by the impact that fear and hatred of the Israelis has made upon the youngest generation - the boys flinging rocks at Israeli tanks, who have come under the influence of masked, gun-wielding insurgents. We meet two young boys, close friends, who manufacture explosives, and an older girl who has lost several members of her family and weeps at yet another funeral. The romance of martyrdom overwhelms their youthful world as a welcomed though not fully understood prospect.

There is little resolution to the powerlessness the viewer can feel watching this film, and those sympathetic with the Israeli side of the equation will find it represented by distant, menacing armed figures in military uniforms or moving through the streets in tanks - objects to be feared, scorned, and hated. And as the film represents this ongoing struggle, there seems to be no end in sight. Worth seeing as a look behind the daily news from that part of the troubled world.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Sacrifice, May 8, 2006

By 

Carmel M. Portillo (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death in Gaza (DVD)

I found this documentary to be very emotional for me. James Miller went to great lengths to try to give us an accurate picture of the Palestinian side of the conflict from the views of three kids. It's about time someone tried to do this. Unfortunately, he paid the ultimate price for his venture. But it leaves me to wonder if this story would have had the impact that it has had if he didn't die. I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who is interested into finding out "both sides of a story" and who values those journalists who risk their lives to bring those stories to us.