Mohamed and the ambulance team race through the rubble-strewn streets to the site of the latest blast. It is night and the power is out. The lights of the ambulance are all that illuminate the way, as the broken city flashes by. They arrive at the scene and start the search for the wounded and the dead. Suddenly, an explosion rips through the night. The camera shakes and all goes black. They have been hit. The leader, Abo Marzouq is hurt. While waiting to find out if Abo is going to survive, Mohamed struggles with despair: “I felt like running away, but there was nowhere to run”.

Mohamed aspires to make films in Gaza City, despite the lack of water, electricity, and closed borders that are part of every ‘normal’ day under the 7-year Israeli blockade of Gaza. While many young people dream of leaving Gaza, Mohamed wants to help. When he hears the news of a new Israeli offensive on Gaza in July 2014 he decides he cannot merely “wait for death” but must do something and joins an ambulance crew to document the war.

He comes of age helping terrified families, as shells rain down upon them. Within the first few days of war, he finds himself helping victims of a massacre: “It felt like being in the middle of a theatre play. I saw blood. I tasted the pain in the eyes of women, fear in the faces of children. To whom could I show these images that are not merely images?”

The ambulance team is led by captain Abu Marzouq, who has saved lives in many of Gaza’s wars. At first, the captain is intense and a little intimidating, not much of a talker. Each day Abu Marzouq and the crew are at the eye of the storm. Mohamed cannot tell his family what he’s going through. He begins to feel close to his crewmates, who joke and encourage one another despite the fear. Abu Marzouq takes Mohamed into his confidence, and Mohamed discovers a man full of life and love for his co-workers, doing all he can in the most desperate of circumstances.