00:00:30

Archive March 30th

IDF and man watching

00:00:35

CARD

Gaza has been under a strict blockade for more than ten years.

Israel and Egypt say that the blockade is in place for their security.

تخضع غزة لحصار مشدد منذ أكثر من عشر سنوات

تقول إسرائيل ومصر إن الحصار قائم لأسباب أمنية

00:00:42

Mahmoud Ketnany

It’s a complete disaster.

With the house, food, water, hospitals, doctors, rent.

To top it all our mind is collapsing and it’s getting worse.

00:01:00

CARD

This film explores the mental health of the people of Gaza and how they are affected by the blockade.

يستكشف هذا الفيلم الحالة النفسية لأهالي غزة وكيف يؤثر الحصار عليها

00:01:10

Husam

I want my freedom. It’s very hard like this. We’re mentally ill. We suffer with depression. That’s a mental illness.

00:01:21

Mohammad on the beach

I think it’s a person’s right to end his own life. It’s his right.

00:01:29

WS Man running with flames in background

00:01:35

CARD

This documentary was filmed in Gaza between the 30th of March and the 15^th of May 2018

during the ‘Great Return March’ protests.

Protestors were demanding the right to return to what is now Israel and calling for an end to the blockade.

تم تصوير هذا الفيلم الوثائقي في غزة بين 30 مارس/آذار و15 مايو/أيار 2018 خلال احتجاجات "مسيرة العودة الكبرى"

00:01:45

Man on crutches hurling rocks

00:01:50

WS teargas

00:01:56

Shahed Al Athamna

There could be war any moment. With my friends we talk about war more than about childhood.

00:02:08

TITLE

Top shot with clouds

GAZA DREAMS

أحلام غزة

00:02:15

Top shot with children on street

00:02:23

Card

1.9 Million people live in an area 41 km long and 10 km wide

يعيش مليون وتسعمائة ألف إنسان في رقعة أرض طولها 41 كم وعرضها 10 كم.

00:02:27

Alternative Card

Mental illness here is widespread, invisible, and taboo.

الأمراض النفسية هنا واسعة الإنتشار وغير مرئية، ومحظورة بنظر المجتمع.

00:02:31

Dr Fadel Ashour at his desk smoking

00:02:35

Dr Fadel Ashour

I’m Dr Fadel Ashour, Ppsychiatrist, Professor of psychiatry at the University of Al Azhar Medical School.

00:02:43

Shop front with seated men and child

00:02:46

Dr Fadel Ashour

Intercut with WS of people in front of shops

The siege doesn’t just mean people are unable to leave Gaza.

It’s bigger than that.

It means there’s no economic growth, no jobs, and a total collapse of facilities.

It’s a crisis we can’t get out of, and we can’t stay in it.

00:03:12

Mohammad WS outside his house

00:03:20

MS Mohammad

Gaza’s situation is very hard.

More than people can imagine.

More than the human mind can understand.

00:03:29

Intercut with

children sitting in alleyway

Mohammad

The siege has affected us in a big way.

It made people kill themselves.

It made them kill each other.

People have split apart.

00:03:42

Intercut with shot of beach and people walking by

Dr Fadel

The most common condition I see as a psychiatrist is Adjustment Disorder

People can’t adjust to a terrible situation, whether they have severe anxiety, or depression.

00:04:04

Mohammad in his room smoking a cigarette

00:04:09

Mohammad in his room CS

I’ll tell you how the siege has affected me.

All my life I heard the expression 'flower of youth'.

Young people begin to draw their path after university.

They find a job, a trade, a profession, and follow that path.

Because of the blockade, until today,

my hands are empty.

There’s nothing in them.

00:04:45

Bed with phone

00:04:49

Mohammad

I was in a relationship with a beautiful person in Tunisia.

00:04:54

WS Mohammad in his room

00:04:55

Mohammad

From the prison that is Gaza,

I send her my best wishes

00:05:03

IDF vehicles

WS and protests

00:05:10

WS protests

Dr Fadel Ashour

Intercut with IDF vehicle and crowds at security fence

WS protesters running

People can’t leave this place.

They can’t fight or change their situation by force. And surrender is insufficient.

There’s no way for them to change the status quo.

Even surrender is not a solution.

00:05:33

WS men running to the security fence

00:05:45

Boy on swing in courtyard (his son)

00:05:49

Mahmoud Ketnany

People go there to release what’s inside them.

They think: ‘I’d rather die than live this life, this is humiliation’,

It’s not human, there’s no respect’.

00:05:49

Intercut with MS boy on swing

Mahmoud Ketnany

The border’s right there. The gunfire from the Return March reaches here, my mother’s house is there. The gunfire reaches right into our street. 

00:06:20

Boy on swing

00:06:25

Mahmoud Ketnany

Since my injury I’ve become scared of everything.

00:06:30

Intercut with boy on swing

Mahmoud Ketnany

When I hear a sound bomb I get so scared inside

Because of what happened to me

00:06:35

WS man on wide street, woman with child, rubbish in foreground

00:06:42

WS Barber shop, Husam and Zuheir and friend

00:06:47

Husam MS Zuheir walks out

00:06:52

Girl in hijab MS seated on floor

00:06:55

Zuheir, Husam’s friend in barber shop with Husam

I always say to Husam ‘sing for me’.

When a customer comes in I say ‘sing for him’.

00:07:04

Husam

I love singing very much, it’s an old talent of mine.

00:07:08

Barber shop Zuheir and customer

Husam (speaking)

Singing lifts me out of my reality.

It makes me happy, it helps me to share with others the meaning of love, peace, and freedom.

00:07:23

Zuheir shaving customer

Husam, let’s hear Um Kulthoum. I have an ear for music, so make it good.

00:07:35

Husam sings in barbery shop,

Zuheir threading customer.

Song.

00:07:53

Husam interview,

Intercut with Zuheir threading customer

I studied music, I've been on lots of programmes and got the top spot in competitions in Gaza.

But here people don't care much about that. The situation is very hard.

I'd like to sing in other countries, for people abroad to hear my talent.

00:08:10

Husam singing  

Love song.

00:08:17

Husam

Intercut with Zuheir threading customer, Husam singing at barber shop and young girl sitting next to cart

So much destruction. The siege is hard. We suffered so much.

I want to get out of this situation, to feel joy, to feel alive.

We’re dead inside here

00:08:37

Husam

I want to work. I want my freedom. It's so hard like this.

We’ve become mentally ill. We suffer from depression.

That’s a mental illness.

00:08:51

Narrow alleyway

00:08:56

WS beach at dusk, children playing.

00:09:05

Mohammad

WS beach and children in silhouette.

Gaza’s environment is polluted, there’s sound, air, and visual pollution too.

Even the sea is polluted because there’s no working sewage system,

so the authorities have to pump

sewage into the sea.

00:09:22

WS sea shots

Children in the surf

(Shahed speaking)

I like going to the sea, to swim. We laugh and forget the wars and stuff like that, our pains and fears

00:09:40

Shahed

We swim and eat there, we draw and play in the sand. Lots of things.

00:09:50

Shahed  runs out of house

My name is Shahad Al-Athamna. - 11 years old.

00:09:56

Shahed walking with sister

I have two sisters and a brother.

00:10:03

CARD

Shahed has witnessed two major wars in her lifetime.

عاشت شهد حربين كبيرتين في حياتها.

00:10:10

Shahed seated

I’m scared. I imagine our house is bombed, that mum and dad are killed, I imagine I get cut to pieces.

That's why I can't sleep. I’m frozen with fear.

00:10:29

Shahed and her sister walk into farmland

00:10:32

Shahed and her sister in the garden

When they bombed the farmland the windows turned red.

00:10:39

Shahed

Intercut with WS Shahed outside

We were scared. There was smoke and fire. There were lots of dead people and thousands of millions were injured.

We couldn’t sleep, we screamed because of the war.

00:11:03

Shahed and her sister outside.

All this was olive trees and clementines. But they bombed it.

This is where my cousin was hit.

-Here?

-Tell me what happened.

She was here. The drone hit her with a bomb.

00:11:29

Shahed

There could be war at any moment. My friends and I we talk about war more than about childhood.

00:11:40

WS crowd at security fence and people running

00:11:50

CARD

The protests intensify

The death toll from Israeli fire increases

The people of Gaza fear a military escalation between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza.

تكثفت الاحتجاجات.

ارتفع عدد قتلى النيران الإسرائيلية.

يخشى سكان غزة من تصعيد عسكري بين إسرائيل وحماس التي تسيطر على غزة.

00:12:02

Archive WS crowds and border fence.

Ambulance.

People running.

End of part one.

00:12:50

WS Gaza top shot with smoke rising

Start of part two.

00:12:54

Children on street seen from above

00:12:59

Mohammad

I can't say there won't be a war on the 15^th of May.

In Gaza we measure our lives in wars.

00:13:11

Top shot of children playing on the street

00:13:16

CARD

Mohammad has tried five times to leave Gaza

to join the woman he loves in Tunisia

حاول محمد مغادرة غزة خمس مرات للذهاب إلى تونس حيث الفتاة التي يحبها.

00:13:25

Mohammad

This simple cage, I love the look of it. But I couldn’t keep a bird in it.

That would be an injustice for the bird. Its place is in the open air.

00:13:40

Shot of child below playing

Mohammad

So freedom, for me, is something I’d fight the whole world for.

And will get it.

00:13:54

WS people walking below, rooftop and balcony with washing

00:14:01

Birdcage on balcony with birds chirping

00:14:06

Shot of window

Husam

What I remember most is my brother, he came back in pieces. He was hit by the Israelis.

I was injured in my leg by a sniper.

00:14:25

Floor filled with rubble

(Husam speaking)

I was taken to hospital

They gave me injections of Tramadol

00:14:31

Husam

00:14:42

Shot of bricks and rubbish on floor

(Husam speaking)

After that I got addicted. I wanted to get out of my situation, so I took lots of pills.

I got badly addicted.

Nothing made me happy or helped me to forget

I became an addict.

00:14:53

WS horse, carriage and man.

Husam

Intercut with shot of rubble and cables

With Tramadol you feel happy for about four or five hours,

Then you’re back to reality, so you want more.

It’s addictive. You think you’ve left reality but it doesn't get you out.

It just destroys you more

00:15:15

Husam

Intercut with shot from below of room and window

Many guys here have that problem, they suffer the same.

It’s about the depression and mental pressures we live with.

They want to forget. But the pills don't help you forget.

They make you worse and cause more destruction.

00:15:36

Dr Fadel

There’s a pandemic, it’s beyond our capacity as doctors to solve this problem. We solve individual’s problems, not society’s problems.

This needs a political solution, not solutions from psychiatrists.

00:15:58

CARD

Husam locked himself away for three months.

With support from his family, he was able to come off Tramadol.

حبس حسام نفسه لمدة ثلاثة أشهر.

ونجح في التخلص من إدمانه على حبوب ترامادول، بمساعدة عائلته.

00:16:08

Husam

-What did you feel when you came off?

I felt like a new person, I had a new life.

It's like we want freedom. The blockade has a hold on us and we want to break free.

I was a prisoner of Tramadol, and got out.

00:16:32

Boy on swing

00:16:39

Mahmoud Ketnany

When I was hit by the airstrike I fell to the ground.

I bled for an hour and a half.

I woke up alone after passing out. Nobody was allowed on the street.

00:16:54

Boy on swing

00:16:54

Boy on swing

Ketnany

I tried to get up but my leg was hanging off.

It was hit by the rocket and it was gone.

00:17:08

WS Ketnany standing on one leg

00:17:12

Ketnany

Intercuts with boy looks at us

'The kids need food, money, for school, textbooks, notebooks

I live in a rented house, I don’t earn enough,

I suffer so much, I feel stressed'

I thought about this 24/7 and couldn't sleep.

00:17:28

Ketnany

My throat felt tight, my head heavy.

I lost my sight.

00:17:36

Boy looks at us

00:17:38

Mahmoud Ketnany

I said to myself this isn’t physical. This is stress and depression.

So I asked people to recommend a good doctor.

00:17:55

WS courtyard

00:17:59

Ketnany

My worrying has reduced by around 30 or 40% because I take pills that calm me down. Now when I start to worry I can stop. It's like I've forgotten how. My condition has improved 200%.

00:18:12

WS fisherman casts net in the sea

00:18:17

Man driving cart on the beach

00:18:24

Crowds stand infront of fence and IDF tank in protest

00:18:30

Drone in sky.

00:18:34

WS IDF fire, teargas at protestors

00:18:41

WS Mohammad on beach.

00:18:49

CARD

Tomorrow Mohammad will try

to leave Gaza for the sixth time.

للمرة السادسة، سيحاول محمد غداً مغادرة غزة.

00:18:56

Mohammad

Intercut with children playing in the water at sunset

The Tunisian embassy called to say they got me a permit to leave through Egypt.

They said let this man go. So I’ll hopefully get out tomorrow, through the Youssef Al Najjar Hall.

But believe me, I’ve lost hope that I might travel.

00:19:10

I hope I’ll travel tomorrow

so that you don't hear news one day,

bad news about me.

-What do you mean?

I think maybe it’s a person's right to end his own life. His right.

If he didn’t choose to come into this world, it’s his right to leave it when he wants.

00:19:56

WS of beach at sunset

Mohammad

When I feel pain, when I feel defeated

I let the person inside me relax.

I’ve always believed in divine justice, in my convictions, and in the great person that’s inside me.

So I say 'No, I can’t bring my life to an end.'

00:20:36

WS of beach at sunset

00:20:41

MS of Mohammed sitting

00:20:47

WS Shahed and her siblings

00:20:53

Shahed

-What’s your biggest dream in life?

When I grow up I don’t want my children to be as scared as I am today. 

00:21:08

Shahed with siblings holding a baby

Shahed

-Tell me how people feel in Gaza

They’re scared. But there’s nothing better than freedom.

00:21:25

WS Mohammad with cat and parents.

00:21:31

Mohammad saying goodbye to his mother

Christine:

-So no goodbyes.

-No. It’s in God’s hands. Because five times we said goodbye and he came back.

Mohammad:

-The problem isn’t with goodbye, it’s the crossing.

To Mohammad: -Is she going with you?

Christine:

-Yes of course I’m going.

Mother:

It’s bitter. You’ll suffer with him.

-God protect you. Be careful.

00:22:10

Big hall.

Child and father.

WS hall.

Shot of Mohammad. Shot of soldier with list surrounded by children.

00:22:28

Mohammad

I don't know if they’ll call my name or not.

All the hours you spend here, you live in constant tension.

You can finish a whole pack of cigarettes.

00:22:40

WS of soldiers with waiting civilians

00:22:43

Shot of soldier and woman.

00:22:47

Shot of woman showing her passport and papers.

00:22:53

WS hall and soldiers, names called.

00:22:55

Mohammad

I hope this is the day of my liberation.

That it can be a beautiful memory for us.

That I will see you in Tunisia later.

00:23:13

WS Mohammad in hall.

Or, God forbid, in Gaza.

00:23:21

Protests men hurling rocks

Smoke and fire. Shot of injured protestor.

00:23:39

Man with crutch hurling rock.

00:23:45

CARD

Between the 30^th of March and the 15^th of May 2018

The IDF killed 115 Palestinians and injured 12,227

One Israeli soldier was wounded.

بين 30 مارس/آذار و15 مايو/أيار 2018، قتل الجيش الإسرائيلي 115 فلسطينياً وجرح 12,227.

جرح جندي إسرائيلي واحد.

00:23:58

END CREDITS