Gaza Calling

Palestine | 2017 | 52 min | Documentary Samer lives in Ramallah in the West Bank. His family lives in Gaza, one hour away. They have not seen each other for six years. When Mustafa went for a visit to Gaza in 2006, he was 18 years old. He was never allowed to return – his mother Hekmat has been fighting to see him again for seven years now. Two families torn apart. They share the same “crime”: being registered with a Gaza address in their Identity Cards. Under Israeli rule, they are considered “infiltrators” in their own country. Their lives have turned into a permanent struggle. Parents can only talk to their sons on the phone; sisters can only see their brothers on the internet – mothers and their children fighting to be together at last… A film by Nahed Awwad Nahed Awwad is an independent filmmaker; she has been working in Film and Television since 1997. She started her career as an editor. In 2002 she started making her own films. She participated in several professional training in Canada, Qatar, and Belgium. In 2004 she got her film diploma from the European film college in Denmark. She released eight documentary films between experimental, short and feature length. Some of the titles: ‘Gaza Calling’ 2012, ‘5 minutes from home’ 2008, ‘The fourth room’ 2005, ‘25km’ 2004, ‘going for a ride’ 2003. Awwad’s films were screened at various international film festivals, including HotDocs film festival, Canada 2013, One World film festival in Prague 2013, Dubai international film festival in 2012, Vision du Reel Film Festival, Nyon, Switzerland in 2005 and 2008 and the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 (Cinema Sud). In 2009 she was granted the International Trailblazer Tribute -Middle East Trailblazer in MIPDOC.