From Ground Zero: Palestinian art under the bombs (critic)
The Palestinian Rashid Masharawi brings together 22 shorts made by Gazaouis. A documentary that proves that art remains an essential tool, even in wartime.
After the attacks of October 7, 2023 and the Israeli response, the idea of this collaborative documentary germinated in the mind of Rashid Masharawi which, originally from the Gaza Strip, wished to encourage the artists of his country to film. From Ground Zero brings together 22 very short films (less than ten minutes), made on site, with the means at hand. Through them, the Palestinian filmmaker thus leaves the field free to a people who are only seen in tragic videos, relayed by the media. Everyone expresses their relationship to war, the loss of their house, their family, in a different way: through fiction, docu-fiction, testimony, or animation.
From Ground Zero Admirably questions the place of art in wartime. When everything we know is destroyed, how to build? “” “In Gaza, the only horizon we have is the sea ”, Expresses a visual artist, who planned to make exhibitions. A stand-upper strives to arrange shows in the midst of refugee camps, a group of musicians happily sing love and hope, filmmakers try to carry out filming, which end up being amputated because From war… preselected in the categories of the best international film and the best documentary at the 2025 Oscars, this Palestinian anthology is essential. It makes it possible to put faces on figures, personal stories on events, as neither history manuals nor the media, will be able to transcribe as well.
By Rashid Masharawi. Duration: 1h52. Release on February 12, 2025
