They’re writers, managers, journalists, musicians, artists, students and influencers, aged between 14 and 62 years old. They had homes, jobs, families and a homeland: Gaza. But they’ve lost everything and now they’re only numbers. Swiss director Nicolas Wadimoff sees them regaining human form in Who Is Still Alive [+lee también:
entrevista: Nicolas Wadimoff
ficha de la película], which was presented in the Special Events section of Venice’s 22nd Giornate degli Autori line-up. Powerful and minimalist in equal measure, the documentary focuses on nine Palestinian refugees as they speak of their lives in the Gaza Strip before all hell broke loose and the Israeli government decided to raze it to the ground following the events of 7 October 2023. Nine Palestinians, a map of Gaza and nothing other than words.

At a time when we’re overwhelmed by violent images, Wadimoff’s work shows how words are proving to be stronger than ever. In a setting reminiscent of Lars Von Trier’s Dogville [+lee también:
tráiler
ficha de la película], a map of Gaza is traced out onto a black floor using white paint, with everything around it cloaked in darkness. The various cities across the Strip are represented by squares which the nine protagonists step into according to where they come from. As they tell their stories, they move from one square to the next: there are some who have been evacuated twenty times. They speak of their homes, built by their families following countless sacrifices, which were torn down in an instant before their very eyes; they speak of how beautiful Gaza was, and how, from one moment to the next, they found themselves packing up their lives in a suitcase. They thought the attack would last a few days. It’s proving never-ending.

We’re reminded that these nine individuals, who are all refugees in Egypt, are privileged, because they were in a position to pay to leave and reach safety. But they’ve all lost someone (entire families, in some cases) and they all have smoking ruins and shattered dreams behind them, memories of places which no longer exist, stones, trees, animals: everything has been destroyed. The fact they’re all educated professionals - not a shapeless mass of terrorists, as some would have us believe, but men and women with their own careers and their own feelings, projects and passions - makes us feel even closer to them. Among them are those who would sooner forget Gaza forever and those who insist that Gaza needs strong people who never lose hope of returning. “Who else can speak out, if not us?”.

Like some form of group therapy, whose protagonists reconnect with themselves and with their memories in order to assert their right to exist and cease to be ghosts, Who Is Still Alive is a precious work of courage and resistance, a sober, respectful work which doesn’t dwell on tears but instead returns humanity to these crushed souls. Their names are Jawdat Khoudari, Mahmoud Jouda, Adel Altaweel, Haneen Harara, Malak Khadra, Hanaa Eleiwa, Firaz Elshrafi, Eman Shanan and Ghada Alabadla. The film was shot in South Africa, one of the few countries in the world which allows Palestinians to cross its border without a visa.

Who Is Still Alive is produced by Akka Films (Switzerland), Easy Riders Films (France) and Philistine Films (Palestine), in co-production with RTS Radio Television Suisse and SRG SSR.