From Ground Zero
“From Ground Zero” presents 22 diverse stories by filmmakers from Gaza, filmed under extremely difficult and complex conditions amidst bombings and great risks to the filmmakers’ lives.
Cinema
Backstage
The contemporary dance company ‘Without Borders’ is just about to end their Moroccan tour with a final performance in Marrakesh.
During their penultimate show at the Maison de la Culture of a little village in the Atlas Mountains, Aida, one of the six dancers, provokes Hedi – her partner on and off the stage who injures her under the horrified eyes of the other members of the troupe.
Mediterranean Fever
Walid is a married Palestinian living in Haifa with his wife and children. He dreams of perusing a writing career while suffering from a chronic depression. Walid develops a close relationship with his new neighbor in order to seek help in ending his life. However, this turns into an unexpected friendship between the two men and an unforeseen end.
A House in Jerusalem
Following her mother’s death, a Jewish-British girl’s father moves her from England to Jerusalem in hopes that a new beginning can help her heal from the painful past. However, upon settling into an old Palestinian house in West Jerusalem, she encounters the ghost of a Palestinian girl who was separated from her family in 1948.
Wajib
Abu Shadi is a divorced father and a schoolteacher in his mid-60s living in Nazareth. After his daughter’s wedding in one month he will be living alone. Shadi, his architect son, arrives from Rome after years abroad to help his father in hand delivering the wedding invitations as per local Palestinian custom. As the estranged pair spend the day together, the tense details of their relationship come to a head challenging their fragile and very different lives.
The Day I Lost My Shadow
In Damascus, young pharmacist Sana is trying to give her son as normal of a childhood as possible. It is 2012, the start of the war in Syria, and water, gas and electricity are scarce. Sana hears there are bottles of gas for grabs in a city nearby. She sets off on a search that quickly gets out of hand after she encounters an unexpected roadblock. Along the way, she experiences the kindness of strangers, but also her worst nightmare. In an olive grove, she discovers that people can lose their shadows – as if the traumatic experience of war causes them to lose something of themselves.
The Man Who Sold His Skin
Sam, a young sensitive and impulsive Syrian, left his country to Lebanon to escape the war to be able to travel to Europe and live with the love of his life. He accepts to have his back tattooed by one of by the World’s most sulfurous contemporary artist. Turning his own body into a prestigious piece of art, Sam will however come to realize that his decision might mean anything but freedom
The Stranger
Tired and embittered Adnan accidentally encounters Basel, a wounded soldier from the war in Syria lying behind the border fence, he decides to rescue him and embarks on a journey, in an attempt to fulfil Basel’s dream, but first Adnan has to confront the village leaders, the Israeli army, and most of all his hard and stubborn father.
Riverbed
‘Riverbed’ tells the story of Salma and her returning daughter Thuraya, and their attempt to preserve, maintain and reconstruct their lives, with and against each other. Salma survived many years by protecting her independence and reached her peace by letting go of any attachments. But the past does not let go of Salma and brings back Thuraya—defeated, divorced, and pregnant.
