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URL: https://fifdh.org/en/festival/program/2026/forum/gaza-resisting-bearing-witness-creating/

⇱ Gaza: Resisting, Bearing Witness, Creating - FIFDH

Accessibility
05-14.03.2027 Geneva
fr
2026 PROGRAMME
Preceded by the short films selection
From Ground Zero +

Gaza: Resisting, Bearing Witness, Creating

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Forum
Ticket
Tuesday 10 March – 19h30
in the presence of the directors (by videoconference)
Espace Pitoëff - Grande Salle
Rue de Carouge 52, 1205 Geneva
Book
As their lives, culture and history are being destroyed, Gazans use art as a form of resistance, using words, images and gestures to denounce occupation, war and genocide.

Art becomes a means of bearing witness to the reality of genocide and of preserving memory, in the hope of prompting action from the international community. These narratives and testimonies speak to both the everyday and the extraordinary: fear and loss, but also dreams, solidarity and perseverance. They reflect the resilience of a people fighting for survival in the face of systematic attempts at erasure by the Israeli government, carried out amid widespread silence.

Speakers
Muhammad Al-Sharif, Aws Al Banna and I’timad Washah Directors of the short films featured (by videoconference)
Rashid Masharawi Artistic supervisor of From Ground Zero + 
Yara El-Ghadban Author and editor of Gaza écrit Gaza

Moderator
Nicolas Wadimoff Filmmaker

Introduction
Karin Huster Medical Team Lead Gaza, MSF

Co-presented with Médecins Sans Frontières
Introduction

Karin Huster
Medical Team Lead Gaza, MSF

Discussion

Muhammad Al-Sharif
Director of the short film Hassan.

Aws Al Banna
Director of the short film The Wish

I’timad Washah
Director of the short film Very Small Dreams

Yara El-Ghadban
Author and editor of Gaza écrit Gaza

Rashid Masharawi
Director, Producer, Artistic supervisor, From Ground Zero +

Moderators

Nicolas Wadimoff
Film Director

Language(s)
Discussions are interpreted in English
Short films

From Ground Zero +

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Short Films

This selection comprises three short films made in Gaza. Initiated by Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, the project creates space for Gazan filmmakers to recount the war and bear witness to the Israeli invasion.

⚠︎ The films of this selection contain disturbing scenes and narratives that may be sensitive to some viewers (civils massacre).

Additional screenings for this selection
By Mohammed Al Sharif
Hassan

Hassan, aged seventeen, is forced to cross Gaza from north to south. During this forced displacement, he is separated from his family. Experiencing war and hunger, he moves from one refuge to another, sustained by a single desire: to return home and be reunited with his loved ones.

By Aws Al Banna
The Wish

A young Palestinian theatre director accompanies teenage girls traumatised by the war. Through theatre, they attempt to transform their pain into performance, while the artist himself confronts his own grief.

By I’timad Washah
Very Small Dreams

In Palestinian refugee camps, women struggle each day to survive under inhuman conditions. Deprived of life’s essentials, daily existence becomes an act of silent resistance.

Section : Short Films
Duration
77’
Directors
Mohammed Al Sharif
Aws Al Banna
I’timad Washah
Introduction

Karin Huster

Medical Team Lead Gaza, MSF
Discussion

Muhammad Al-Sharif

Director of the short film Hassan.
Muhammad Al Shareef based in Gaza, holds a Business Administration degree and a Cinema Diploma. He is an actor and director, known for the short film "Min Wen Lawen," hosting "Shobak Al-Balad," and acting in "Chi Ann Blaze of Fury." He has extensive training in acting, cinematography, and film production. He is returning to From Ground Zero Collections after his previous short film “No Signal”, a long-take on a kid looking for her father under Gaza’s rubble.
Discussion

Aws Al Banna

Director of the short film The Wish
Aws Al Banna, 26, from Gaza, is a television and theatre actor, drama teacher, playwright and director. He studied theatre and his notable works include the series "Milad Al-Fajr", "Shuhud" and "Darb Al-Fida" and plays such as "Al-Ramadiyun" and "Rashomon Gate". His new short “The Wish” follows the direction he approached From Ground Zero’s first installation with “Jad & Natalie”.
Discussion

I’timad Washah

Director of the short film Very Small Dreams
Based in Gaza, Palestine, Etimad Washah was the Video Programme Coordinator at the Women's Affairs Centre (2001-2018). She is a director of documentary and fiction films on women's issues, a trainer in cinematography and editing, and has directed women's film festivals and student film projects. After her own testimony shared throughout “Taxi Wanissa”, she directed “Very Small Dreams”, a short documentary focused on refugee women’s health issue.
Discussion

Yara El-Ghadban

Author and editor of Gaza écrit Gaza
Yara El-Ghadban is a Palestinian novelist and anthropologist. Her books depict the lives of men, women, and children who, in the face of history, colonial violence, and exile, dream of a better tomorrow. She is the author of four novels published by Mémoire d’encrier, the most recent being "La danse des flamants roses" (2024), which won the Prix Mare Nostrum 2024 and the Prix du Troisième Poulpe. "La danse des flamants roses" was also shortlisted for the Prix Frontières, the Prix des Lycéens de la région des Pays de la Loire, and the Prix de la librairie Les yeux qui pétillent in France. In 2021, she co-authored, with Rodney Saint-Éloi, founder and director of Mémoire d’encrier, the book Les racistes n’ont jamais vu la mer.
Discussion

Rashid Masharawi

Director, Producer, Artistic supervisor, From Ground Zero +
Rashid Masharawi, born in 1962 in Gaza’s Shati refugee camp, is a pioneering Palestinian filmmaker whose work reflects the struggles of occupation and exile. His films explore themes of identity, displacement, and daily life in Palestine, earning international acclaim and academic recognition. He was the first to have a film selected for Cannes under the Palestinian banner. A champion of Palestinian cinema, he founded the Cinema Production and Distribution Centre in Ramallah to support local filmmakers. His recent project, From Ground Zero (2025), a collective film by 22 Gazan artists was shortlisted for an Academy Award, highlights the impact of war. He is now developing The Natives, a feature about a Palestinian doctor in Europe navigating love and exile amid geopolitical challenges.
Moderators

Nicolas Wadimoff

Film Director
Nicolas Wadimoff was born in 1964 in Geneva and is a Swiss director, documentary filmmaker and producer. He is the cofounder of Etat d’Urgences, an association managing the cultural centre USINE in Geneve. In 1988 he graduated from UQAM (Université du Québec a Montreal) in communications with a specialization in cinema. Nicolas Wadimoff made his first documentary in 1990. He worked as a film director at Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) and founded Akka Films, devoted to the development of fiction films and production of documentaries. He has directed more than 20 films, both fiction and documentaries, among them the multi awarded Clandestins (1997), Aisheen, Still Alive in Gaza (2010), Operation Libertad (2012), Spartiates (2014), JJean Ziegler, The Optimism of Willpower (2016) and The Apollo of Gaza (2018) which have been shown at major international film festivals such as Berlinale, Locarno Film Festival, or Cannes’s Director’s Fortnight.