Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk

When Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi fails to cross the Egyptian border and enter besieged Gaza, she turns to an alternative shooting plan: the talented young journalist and photographer Fatma Hassouna becomes the main protagonist of her film. With her eyes in and on Gaza, Fatma bears witness not only to the atrocities of Israel’s genocidal assault, but also to our collective failure to stop the perpetrators, to hold them to account, and, perhaps, to break with modes of living imbricated in the annihilation of others.

The film unfolds through a series of virtual, yet intimate conversations between Sepideh and Fatma, interrupted only by the relentless flow of news and the images Fatma captures of life in Gaza under rubble. The screen of a phone or computer remains at the center, as do the recurring disruptions of the internet: a reminder of the barriers that separate our lives from Fatma’s own, one that was cut short, alongside many others, under the complicity of major powers with a colonial aggressor.

One day after Sepideh tells her that the film has been selected for Cannes, Fatma and six members of her family are killed in an Israeli attack. The film premieres in the ACID section in Cannes without her—another failure, exposed before the world. (IA)

Solidarity Note: 100% of the proceeds from the screening of “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” on Sunday, April 26th at Silent Green, and the following poetic tribute, will be donated to the family of Fatma Hassouna. Every ticket purchased for the events at Silent Green provides direct material support to her mother in Gaza.