GAZA: A STORY OF LOVE AND WAR
Two journalists meet to share stories over a Zoom link. One is Welsh and unable to get into Gaza. The other is Palestinian and unable to get out.
As they talk, a very personal history of the Palestinian Nakba is narrated, from the expulsions of 1948 to the killing streets and tent cities of 2024.
A generation ago, the journalist’s mothers escaped two different catastrophes — the Holocaust in 1939-45 and the violent expulsion of Palestinians in 1948. We hear remarkable connections in the stories. Then their talk reaches a most unexpected question:
Is coexistence possible?
So this meeting becomes an exchange of impossible hopes in the ashes of war and genocide.
How are your relations with the Arabs?
Strive to live in peace and friendship with the Arabs.
It is sure to be a very important matter!
Mike Joseph’s grandfather, writing in 1935
GAZA: A Story of Love and War is on cinema release from August 14 2024 [Certificate 12A]
Latest 2024 dates
October
London, West Norwood — Saturday, Oct 26 at 5:30pm @ West Norwood Picturehouse (plus director Q+A)
Brighton — Sunday, Oct 27 at 1pm @ Duke’s at Komedia (plus director Q+A)
November
Bath — Wednesday, Nov 13 at 6:30pm @ Bath Artists Studios (plus discussion with film makers Lucy Lyon and Mike Joseph)
London, Ealing — Wednesday, 13 Nov at 8pm @ Ealing Picturehouse (with recorded Q+A)
Belfast — Tuesday, 19 Nov at 7pm @ The Black Box, Hill Street
London, Brixton — Saturday, 23 Nov at 7:50pm @ The Ritzy, Brixton (plus director Q+A)
London, Hackney — Sunday, Nov 24 at 4pm @ Hackney Picturehouse (plus director Q+A)
York — Monday, Nov 25 at 8pm @ City Screen (with recorded Q+A)
Chester — Wednesday, Nov 27 at 7pm @ Chester Picturehouse (plus director Q+A)
Edinburgh — Wednesday, Nov 27 at 8pm @ The Cameo (with recorded Q+A)
Check back for additional dates
Pre-Release reactions to GAZA: A Story of Love and War
Gaza: A Story of Love and War Reviewed in The Guardian
“Made on an infinitesimal budget but with compassion, empathy and consideration, this documentary is the product of an encounter between two journalists…The conversation they did manage to record before all hell broke out is moving and thought-provoking. The two men emphasise how much they have in common as children of trauma, rather than what might divide them.”
Read the full review at The Guardian
View the Trailer
Watch the Sequel
GAZA: WHAT DO WE DO?
At early screenings of the original film in England and Wales, audiences expressed the urgent need to do something – ‘but what can we do?’
Reflecting this wide public concern, this film sequel, titled GAZA: What Do We Do?, discusses these concerns with Plaid Cymru MP Ben Lake, with a heartfelt plea from Sami Abu Salem to end the bloodshed.
Latest Posts about GAZA
Waiting for the End
The conflict which led to 15 months of war in Gaza did not start on 7th of October 2023, but over a century ago. And the ceasefire announced for the 19th of January 2025, whatever it brings, will not end the conflict, but open a new phase, perhaps burdened with even...
No bombs, no bodies
‘No bombs, no bodies’, wrote a viewer about my film, GAZA: A Story of Love and War, ‘and yet so powerful and moving’. Lacking the expected screenplay of horror that fills television and online news daily since October 2023, this film may at first seem little more than...
Gaza: What do we do?
This short sequel to GAZA: A Story of Love and War, records the audience discussion with Ceredigion MP, Ben Lake, after the autumn 2024 screening of the documentary in Cardigan. Ben Lake reveals that no subject concerns his constituents more urgently than Gaza....