Film showing of “Shanshula”, with a discussion to follow. The title, “Shanshula”, is a local fishing-dialect term for a type of net used in Gaza.
The film was completed just before the recent phase of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, which followed October 7th. In fact, some of the footage which closes the film was made after the attacks began, attacks which brought such devastating consequences for the people of Gaza.
The aim of the film was to illustrate the lives of the Palestinian fishing community in the Gaza Strip, their daily suffering, facing attacks from the Israeli navy while trying to fish to make ends meet for their families.
The film tells this story through interviews with a number of Palestinian fishermen who lost loved ones, were themselves physically disabled by the Israeli navy fire or were arrested for no reason in ways that were deeply humiliating. It also tells the story of Madleen, a remarkable woman, one of the few Palestinian fisherwomen in the Gaza Strip. Interviews were conducted at Gaza port during the spring of 2022 and up to early October 2024.
The film would have been incomplete without some footage, made after October 7th, recording the forceful evacuation of the fishing community from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip and illustrating the suffering of the Palestinian people under the Israeli genocidal attack.
Ironically, the film was about to be premiered at the YMCA in Gaza on 7th October 2023 and now awaits its Palestinian debut.
The film is 33 minutes long. It was directed by Musheir El Farra and made on location in Gaza in cooperation between Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Palestinian Vanguard Station. This organisation is an experienced and professional film-making team, local to the area, who also provide training for youngsters in journalism. Their premises in Khan Younis were bombed and destroyed in January 2024.
Footnote: One person who saw the film’s preview said, “This film is remarkable in many ways, not least because it captures an important historical moment, recording the lives of a society on the edge of devastation, unaware of what awaited them, but living the very best lives possible under a cruel 17 year-long Israeli siege. The film is a poignant tribute to Palestinians, richly human and political.”
Musheir El Farra biography:
- Political activist, writer, public speaker and film maker. Originally from Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, Palestine
- Author of “Gaza, When the Sky Rained White Fire” and other books in Arabic.
- Chair of Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
- Co-coordinator for Sheffield PSC’s Children Projects in the Gaza Strip since 1995.
- Founder and coordinator for ” Sheffield Gaza Relief Fund”
