Customer Reviews

Gaza Strip

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Maybe you don't know much about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; maybe you know an awful lot. But either way, this is a film that you ought to see. At once delicate and terrifying, this documentary is a rare glimpse inside the Gaza Strip, a place most of us only hear about and can barely imagine. More than a glimpse, actually, this film is more like a long, hard stare.
We start off following in the footsteps of a 13-year-old Gaza boy, Mohammed, who works a paper boy and throws rocks at Israeli tanks in his spare time. Through his eyes we are led deeper and deeper into one of the most intractable conflicts around, and we see a side of it that almost never gets seen, especially in the US.
This film has a wider scope than the stone throwing kids of Gaza City, however -- it extends all the way south into the Rafah refugee camp and lingers for long periods in Khan Yunis, the site of a very disturbing gas attack on a Palestinian refugee camp by the Israeli military. This scene is so controversial that it has aroused a lot of argument in interested circles -- inclusion in a BBC documentary and fierce denials by the Israelis that such things ever happened at all.
Many important issues are covered in this film -- we witness children being shot at, the demolition of Palestinian homes by the Israeli military, and the growing sense of hopelessness among Palestinian civilians. In very telling scenes, we see what seems to be the genesis of a new generation of suicide bombers, giving up all hope for life on this earth.
This is not a happy film, but it is an honest one -- and one filled with dense layers of meaning. This is not simply journalism or a man filming interviews with officials -- this documentary is a piece of art, and a cry for justice.

I will never look at the Mid East conflict the same way again after watching this film. It's something I always wanted and never had, to look inside at the Palestinian's world. And this film gave me that chance. Can't recommend it more highly.

It is sad. The movie breaks my heart. I wish I were a dog. Then, I could not be held responsible for all that the human race has proven themselves capable of.
It disgusts me further to think that one reviewer decided that since it is not a film about the suffering of his own people from North Korea, it is not nearly as heart wrenching. In further responce to that individual, to date the intifada has claimed more than 800 Israeli lives. And for every Israeli life taken, approximately 5 Palestinian lives were lost. Even if it were 3 lives, it is unacceptable.
Then we have individuals who are so anti opposing view, that they have chosen to remain in their bubble without even viewing the film. Yet, for some reason, they feel compelled to post a review. They are what is wrong with humanity. Actually, they define the lack there of. If it were their child who was forced to grow up and die in as humiliating a life as some of those depicted in the film, they are either liars or fools to believe that they would not react in the same ways.
Those who may feel that the film was anti-Semitic are justifiable. It is. It is, because the actions often taken by the Israelis are a strong argument against "humanity". I don't feel that violence, in any form, is ACCEPTABLE. But I am advanced enough to UNDERSTAND it.
An open mind is difficult to maintain. And admittedly, I am (and have been for years) a sympathizer of the plight of the Palestinians. I am an idealist. So does that also make me a terrorist?

The reviewer from Santa Barbara who questions the authenticity of this documentary gives him or herself away with the complaint that no Jewish settlers were interviewed for the film. The reviewer from Santa Barbars states, factually, that "thousands of Jews live in Gaza"---to which I say *exactly!*, you fool, there are settlements on the best land (easiest access to water from acquifer) which house a few thousand Jews in luxury and are consuming a full 30% of a small parcel of land that is legally the property of the Palestinian state, which squeezes over a million into the other 70% of this small parcel.

Apartheid is alive and well and in violation of UN resolutions and the 4th Geneva Convention in the occupied territories, and this film shows it how it is.

The good thing about this movie is that there is no interference that one usually sees in documentaries either in the form of a commentator or some analysis. This is basically raw footage in the sense that the camera is roaming the streets following people as they go about their daily life.
One might argue that you don't get to hear the Israeli side of the story, a valid argument. However, I don't think the movie is trying to analyse the conflict; it is just showing the people living in Gaza and their ever changing reaction to what's going on in their life from despair to the hope of a better tomorrow.
The main character, a boy, summarises it all at the end when he says that he would rather die then continue on living like this. A statement that might shed some light on why some people choose to wrap themselves with explosives and why there is still a long way to go in the Middle East with no hope in sight.
Recommended if you would like to get an idea about the life of the Plaestinians under the Israeli occupation

I saw this film when it was showing at the Cinema Village theater in NYC last fall. It wasn't just that "Gaza Strip" is a strong documentary about Palestinians inside the Occupied Territories -- it was that this is the *only* real presentation of Palestinians' daily lives that I have *ever* seen in a movie theater. I think this says quite a bit about the difficulty of making a film about this subject and getting it released. As some of the reviews here demonstrate, there are lots of people out there committed to silencing any Palestinian voice and hiding any picture of what is taking place away from the press offices in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

This film shows the face of military occupation, ugly, brutal and disturbing. This film lets Palestinians talk, say what they think -- there is no English narration in this film; the whole documentary is narrated by interviews in Arabic with Palestinians.

This film shows material that clearly can never be shown in our mainstream media. And it is gripping. I was literally holding on to the arms of my seat as I watched this documentary, feeling a terrible, sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach as I realized how little we are allowed to see of what is really happening in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the awful forbidden truth.

Maybe this documentary doesn't show everything -- what documenary does? It also doesn't pretend to show everything. It is very clearly documenting a side of this conflict we don't normally see: that of Palestinian non-combatant civilians.

And that is what makes it a valuable film. It's not about Hamas, it's not about Islamic Jihad. It's about the majority of Palestinians -- the ones living with 9 siblings in a Gaza slum, the ones running from the fighting and bulldozers, the Palestinians dodging bullets on their way home from school. This will not be the only film you should ever see when trying to understand the Middle East conflict -- but it should definitely be one of them. It is a document of Palestinian reality that has no equal.

Some reviewers have said this film is full of lies. I don't know exactly what they're talking about -- though they seem to have more than a touch of extreme zionist politics behind their analysis. For my part, when I watched this film I felt as if I were seeing something honest and direct about this conflict for the first time in my life.

The straight-on style of the film almost seems to look out of the eyes of its subjects. You can almost feel what it's like to be there in the Gaza Strip, a result of the non-glossy detail, the minimal music and thematic flow of scenes. This is daring documentary in many ways -- both politically and stylistically. It seems to have roots in French New Wave and radical films like The Battle of Algiers. But it also has its feet on the ground as a document, it takes enough time to flesh out incidents without being didactic. The aesthetic considerations Longley takes are kind of incredible, considering he's filming under gunfire much of the time. I can't imagine anyone making another film quite like this under such difficult circumstances. Watch it.

This film has changed the way I look at the Palestinian - Israeli conflict. It's the first film I have ever found that really feels like an inside view of Palestinian life -- not just a light glossing-over of their situation like in the film "Promises" or on the rare news reports that actually have cameras inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip areas. Also, it was made by an American, which is unusual -- when you see the film, which is all in Arabic with english subtitles, you think it could have been made by a local person with a camera -- Longley seems to have a lot of access.

One thing the DVD has that makes it excellent is an optional audio track with the director's notes on making the film. Without all of this extra information I might have had a lot of unanswered questions about how the film got made and why the director chose to film in the way he did. Instead I could watch the film a second and third time and still continue to get new information I missed before. The director audio track also has a lot of background information that isn't covered in the film itself, and explains the context of some of the scenes where it's not clear otherwise.

But all the same, this isn't really a "newsy" documentary -- it's not a bunch of interviews with international law experts or historians. This film is more experiential. You can get something like the feeling of being in that place, inside the Gaza Strip, and walking around. There is a lot of atmosphere and sound, and no distractions from the conventional narration you find in most TV documentaries. This film is more like a film for the theater, not TV.

I found watching this film a very gripping experience, and one that really expanded my understanding of what is going on over there. There is definitely a lot of stuff we Americans don't get to see on television! And what is up with some of the reviews of this film? One guy even refers to it as a "book" and gives it one star. Another one goes on and on about how everything is the Arabs' fault -- but never mentions the film! There must be people who just surf the Internet giving bad reviews to anything that is remotely critical of Israel, even if they haven't seen it/read it. Now that's dedication!

Even though this film is only about the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and doesn't interview Israelis at all, I think it's wrong to dismiss it as "one-sided". After all, films about black life under Apartheid in South Africa were valuable documents even if they didn't interview whites, and films like "The Battle of Algiers" (which this film kind of feels like, weirdly) are still great and illuminating even if they do clearly take a side. This film doesn't cover everything, but I think it's being honest about the stuff it does cover -- and that's stuff we missed in the "mainstream" media. So it's an important piece of the picture -- no film can tell it all.

I watched this documentary when it first came out, and I was happy that finally someone had gone in and shown something other then the Israeli news shows.
First off, I have studied filmmaking, and I have to say that this is as close to a true documentary as you can get. The lack of commentary and just film containing what was actually seen is what a documentary should be- not something edited and narrated over until you believe every word said (though I do recommend "Uncle Saddam" and "Loose Change" as two very thick in commentary but still very well made movies). You are supposed to come up with your own mind when you watch a documentary, not agree with a commentator.
Secondly, as a History major in college, I studied the creation of the Nation of Israel, and learned about the near utopia that had already been in existence between the Jews and the Palestinians. When the Holocaust victims moved and lived on communes together since their families had been killed or missing, they would go so far as to spend holidays with their farming Palestinian neighbors. I don't know why this wasn't good enough for everyone, and I wish things had just been left alone. If it had, then children wouldn't be killed when all they were doing was playing in the street.
Violence from BOTH SIDES is totally senseless and disgusting. But it is not hard to put yourself into the shoes of a small boy who's entire family and all his friends have been killed, who has had his home destroyed by a tank, and who now seeks revenge. It's easy to go into a violent mode if you've got nothing left to loose.
No matter what religion you are, no matter what side you think is right, please, if you watch this movie, keep an open mind and come up with your own conclusions. As human beings, independent thought is our most precious of liberties.

"Gaza Strip," is the most potent documentaries of modern tiems. There are no angles. No one asks who started the war, or whose fault are the deaths. James Longley follows the daily routine of a kid in Gaza and the camera witnesses nothing staged, but the daily challenges and thereats to his life which the kid must navigate in order to survive.

What impressed me the most about the main child in the documentary (but also about children I have met in developing world in general) is the amazing breadth of knowledge of world affiars he has. He is barely literate and sells papers to help support his fmaily, but still he is well aware of the world leaders and international organizations that have contibuted to his living circumstances either by instituionalizing discriminatory policies or by doing nothing while Israel breaks international law.

Only those who are very secure can exist in ignorance of foreign leaders and international polcies. Those whose lives are insecure are very aware of the world palyers, because it is the decisions made overseas that jeopardize their way of life. The US gives more aid to Israel than to any other developing country. Most of it is received in the form of weapons.

This week is the anniversary of the liberation of Aushwitz when the world is saying never agin will we have the horrors that we saw in World War II, but it is empty rhetoric. Entire communities continue to be attacked by states; excpet at least in the Nazis paid for their own horrows, more and more often in modern times the US funds other states' attrocities. The Palestinians are living in increasingly ghettoized communities, on land being illegally taken away from them at the hands of the Isralei state (which should not be confused with all Israeli people, because there are many Israeli human rights groups that deplore such policies and fight them).

However, this film does not analyze policy, or poit fingers at where the weaopons come form. it does not talk about the water and land still being grabbed. It merely follows one kid around and introduces the viewer to the kid's immediate circle of acquaintances. The violence and politics are only background characters. Occasionally a friend is killed, but the incident is as if an unseen boogey man killed him, because the film does not attempt to explain the why and how such conditions were created to permit children to die so easily.

No child should ever have to live in such circumstances. Every American should be required to view this film, because without US aid, these circumstances probably would not have been created.

If you want to understand the Palestinian/Israeli conflict you have to understand both sides. In the United States, we are constantly being bombarded with the Israeli position, and shown detailed coverage of the attacks on Israelis. Most of us know little or nothing about what life is like for the Palestinians on the other side of the fence.

This film goes miles toward filling that void. I think it is the first film of its kind I have ever seen -- a verite documentary film set inside the Gaza Strip, narrated by real people telling their stories. The camera sometimes seems like it's just floating on its own, or inside the heads of the protagonists. This is a great doc, and well made. It's not simple, either -- it draws on layers of visual and audio meaning to build a portrait of the Palestinian people that is more intimate than we ever get to see.

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