EXCERPT
From the first shots of Riccardo crossing gates and checkpoints, looking at Gazan herders through metal fences, the fact that we are about to enter the world’s largest open prison becomes palpable.
Many scenes were filmed inside the clean and quiet corridors of the modern Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where doctors and students welcome Riccardo warmly into their school and lives. There are some funny and heartwarming moments.
Between discussions on veins and hemorrhoids, Riccardo’s fellow students dream of freedom and wish to one day escape Gaza. How many of them have lost their lives or loved ones during this war? Al-Shifa was heavily bombed (Israel accused Hamas of having a base there), its staff treated like terrorists and taken into custody, and its emergency rooms filled daily with seriously injured children. Or worse.
One of the festivals screening “Erasmus in Gaza” watch the film here is Tel Aviv’s Solidarity Film Festival, which opened at the city’s cinematheque on Tuesday. I guess the best way to watch this documentary is in retrospect, and in Tel Aviv, after a year that saw Israel turn Gaza into a pile of gray debris.
“We screened ‘Erasmus in Gaza’ in 2022, and even then the situation in Gaza was catastrophic – there was a siege. But it was heaven in comparison to what has happened there since,” says Dani Vilenski, the festival’s director and founder. “So we have decided to screen it again.”
“Most of our movies are from 2024-2025 – nobody screens a movie that was made in 2023, for example,” he says. “When I’ve talked to the distributors of this film, they told me it’s one of the most requested films this year among festivals.”
Source:
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/tel-aviv-film-festival-in-solidarity-with-palestinians/