Three MiniDV tapes of life in Gaza from 2001 were recently rediscovered. This footage is now a testament to a place and time that no longer exists. What started as a search for a former prison mate from 1989—a man lost to time and war— led to an unexpected road trip from the north to the south of Gaza with Hasan, a local guide, whose fate remains unknown. As the camera moves through Gaza’s streets and landscapes, it records fleeting moments of everyday life—fragments of a reality now irreversibly altered. With Hasan in Gaza transforms this forgotten footage into a cinematic reflection on memory, loss and the passage of time, capturing a Gaza of the past and lives that may never be found again.

Cast & Crew
Producers: Kamal Aljafari, Flavia Mazzarino         
Director: Kamal Aljafari
Script: Kamal Aljafari
Director of Photography: Kamal Aljafari
Music: Simon Fisher Turner, Attila Faravelli
Sound: Kamal Aljafari
Editing: Kamal Aljafari
Production: Kamal Aljafari Productions

Awards
Grand Prize Frontier Competition․ DMZ International Documetary FF, South Korea, 2025; Best Documentary Film - Ulysses Decipro Prize, Cinemed, Montpellier, France, 2025; The Mayor's Prize, Yamagata International Documentary FF, Japan, 2025; First Prize - Int. Competition, Festival dei Popoli, Florence, Italy, 2025; Premio Diritti Umani - Amnesty International Italia/Premio Miglior Coproduzione Euromediterranea - in collaborazione con la Rappresentanza in Italia della Commissione Europea, MedFilm Festival, Rabat, Morocco, 2025; Young Jury Award Muestra de Cine Lanzarote, Spain, 2025; Special Mention, Verzió FF, Budapest, Hungary, 2025; Best Artistic Achievement Award, Doha FF, Qatar, 2025; Special Jury Prize, Athens Avant-Garde FF, 2025; Europa Cinemas Label, Locarno FF, 2025

Kamal Aljafari 
Palestinian filmmaker and artist Kamal Aljafari is known for his distinctive approach to cinema. He studied at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and has held teaching positions at The New School in New York and the Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie in Berlin. His installation The Camera of the Dispossessed was shown at the 35th Bienal de São Paulo in 2023. Aljafari was also honored at IndieLisboa 2024 with a full retrospective of his work at the Portuguese Cinematheque as well as at the Madrid Spanish Cinematheque in 2025. The feature film A Fidai Film (2024) was shown in over hundred festivals and won around 10 international awards. His most recent work, With Hasan in Gaza (2025), premiered in the International Competition at Locarno FF, where it was awarded with the Europa Cinemas Label.

Filmography
Visit Iraq (short, 2003), The Roof (2006), Balconies (short, 2007), Port of Memory (2010), Recollection (2015), It’s a Long Way from Amphioxus (short, 2019), An Unusual Summer (2020), Paradiso, XXXI, 108 (short, 2023), UNDR (short, 2024), A Fidai Film (2024), With Hasan in Gaza (2025).