Sepideh Farsi, whose beautifully animated war drama The Siren, focusing on the Iran-Iraq war, played at the Berlinale two years ago, returns to the festival circuit with a documentary about Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna. In the intimate, urgent documentary, Fatima walks Farsi through her life in Gaza during the ongoing Israeli assault, captured through video calls between the director and her subject over almost a year.
Tragically, the day after the film’s world premiere in the ACID sidebar was publicly announced, Fatima and nine members of her family were killed by an Israeli air strike. In a deeply moving press release, the ACID team paid homage to Fatima and her family, stating, “We had watched and programmed a film in which this young woman’s life force seemed like a miracle. This is no longer the same film that we are going to support and present in all theaters, starting with Cannes. All of us, filmmakers and spectators alike, must be worthy of her light.”
