This Heart-Wrenching Documentary About Gaza Surfers Is a Must See
Arab Film Festival Australia (AFFA) is a community-based and driven film festival that brings together the best of contemporary Arab cinema to Australian audiences. The festival provides a unique opportunity for cross-cultural exchange, dialogue and relationship building between Australia and Arab communities, from around the world.
Indeed, AFFA aims to address the contemporary reality and frequent misrepresentation of Arab peoples and cultures, by reflecting the complexity and diversity of the Arab experience. The festival provides a critical space for alternative screen based representations of Arab subjects, cultures, and narratives.
One of the films that were scheduled to be featured in the 14th edition of this festival was a heart-wrenching documentary called “Gaza Surf Club”. This documentary will take its viewers into the world of the Gaza Strip’s surfing enthusiasts, and reveal the formidable resilience pulsing within a beleaguered population.
The non-fictional cinematic text revolves around the lives of a group of youths who, despite being constantly weary of the daily state of emergency within Gaza, still manage to seek refuge and find meaning to their lives by means of surfing on the beaches of Gaza.
