Documentary on Gaza’s survival at world’s largest documentary film festival in Amsterdam

Al Haya Helwa (Life is Beautiful), a documentary on the life of a Gaza resident forced into exile in Europe, is part of the competition category at the International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam which will be held during November 8-19.

Mohamed Jabaly was in Norway when he received news that the Gaza border has been closed indefinitely. A Palestinian filmmaker visiting the Nordic country to spread his work on creating positive images of his hometown of Gaza, Jabaly suddenly found himself in exile and alone in the dark, arctic winter. He decided to survive, with the help of his camera.

Al Haya Helwa (Life is Beautiful), a documentary on the life of a Gaza resident forced into exile in Europe, is part of the competition category at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), a prestigious destination for documentary filmmakers around the world. Directed by Jabaly, the film is also about  the survival of Gaza, one of the most densely-populated cities in the world.

"I feel so sad about what's happening in my hometown in Gaza. It's tragic and horrific and our families are in danger. I have lost connection to most of my friends. I don't know where they are or how they are doing or even if they are still alive," says Jabaly.

"This film is a human story. It's about life and how people stand together for each other when it's difficult," he says. Norway's entry to the IDFA competition category this year, Al Haya Helwa will compete for the top prize of the festival, which will be held from November 8 to 19.

Al Haya Helwa will be joined in the competition category by two Indian movies — The World Is Family, Anand Patwardhan's new documentary and a rare portrait of his family and its links with India's freedom struggle, and Flickering Lights about life in a dysfunctional village by Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan. Patwardhan is the only Indian to have the IDFA top prize for his 2018 film, Vivek (Reason).

Al Haya Helwa tells the story of Jabaly, who arrives in Norway on a work tour, according to the Norwegian Film Institute, which provided development and production grants to the film. While he is on tour, the border to Gaza closes indefinitely and he is stranded in the Arctic. With nowhere to go, Jalaby applies for residency in Norway and in the process finds himself stripped of his identity. Thus begins an odyssey through bureaucracy. Refusing to be put in a box, he turns his camera on himself to define his identity, find his future, and create his own story.

"It's a social justice film for Norway and Palestine, my personal story here in Norway," says the filmmaker. "It's kind of destiny that my film got selected at this special moment when we all live. We got the news (of the IFDA selection) before the (Israeli) attacks started. But I felt my joy wasn't complete, looking back to my city," says Jabaly. "I always wanted to show hope, the beauty of Gaza, its people, its struggle, and its survival."

"I feel so proud to be selected for IDFA 2023. It's a great achievement for me and for the work that I have been doing over the last few years," says Jabaly. The feature length documentary follows Jabaly as he is visiting a film festival in Tromsø, a Norwegian city, in 2014 as a documentary film director when the borders to Gaza close. It will be seven years before he will see his family again.

While waiting for the situation to change, Jabaly’s friends in Gaza tell him to seek asylum or get married to stay in Norway. He, however, refuses to give up his Palestinian identity and insists on being recognized for his work. After being denied a work permit after several appeals, Jabaly takes his case to court, backed by a growing group of supporters.

As this unfolds, he lives a parallel life online, staying connected with family in Gaza. They provide solace, but when Gaza is attacked again, he experiences the pain of being separated from his loved ones and is faced with an impossible choice. If he goes back to Gaza, he may never be able to leave again and continue his work as an internationally recognised film director, sharing his stories with the world.

Jabaly's first documentary film, Ambulance, won the Sun Bird Award for Best Documentary in Palestine in 2016. The documentary too tells the director's own story of joining an ambulance crew in Gaza in July 2014 as an Israeli attack looms large over the horizon. Al Haya Helwa was presented at the IDFA Forum, a gathering of documentary projects in development, in 2020. The film received 2.3 million Norwegian Kroner (about Rs 17.3 million) from the Norwegian Film Institute in development and production grants.

"Documentary film is essential for giving us insight into fates and stories that we would otherwise not have access to or think about," says Kjersti Mo, CEO of Norwegian Film Institute. "Mohamed Jabaly has both shared the story of his own life and simultaneously shown us some of the many consequences of conflicts far away that also affect us," adds Mo.

Al Haya Helwa, which shares the title with the Oscar-winning 1997 Italian film Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni about a father protecting his son in a Nazi concentration camp using humour, focuses on hope for the city of Gaza and its residents. "I think the only way to keep moving is to share this hope, this beauty, and also see the world is recognising us," says Jabaly. "My motto of hope is 'Life is Beautiful'. I always said that and I will always say that. That's how I want to see our life."