Palestinian Gandhis Part VII: Young Filmmakers

In the final post of our "Palestinian Gandhis" series, we come across two young artists, "Arab" and "Tarzan," whose peaceful resistance mainly takes the form of film, though their voices are also heard throughout Gaza in murals and street art. In this installment, they discuss their influences, their intentions, and their work.

Filmmaker Pam Bailey had this to say about them:

The power of art as a tool of resistance, cutting right to the heart of oppression and betrayal, is unleashed in the work of Mohamed ("Arab") and Ahmed ("Tarzan") Abu Nasser. The identical twin brothers are true "renaissance men" – they play the guitar, paint, sketch, write screenplays, direct and act. However, filmmaking is their favorite form of expression, despite the fact that Gaza has no film school, and no cinemas.

The brothers are at once boys at heart – acting younger than their 20 years – and ancient in their lived experience. In the video you are about to watch, you will see at one point a close-up of an anguished woman, painted in muted swirls of greens, blues, orange and black. The girl was Tarzan’s love, killed in the Israeli onslaught of 2009. The sketched portraits of a woman you will see strung across their room are of their mother.

There are very few art competitions or exhibitions in Gaza, but Arab and Tarzan took top honors in one of the few, sponsored by the Al Qattan Foundation. In their winning entry, they created a series of mock promotional posters, each one advertising a movie named after an actual Israeli military operation. The obvious violence depicted on the posters (as entertainment) creates a jarring juxtaposition to the idyllic names Israel gives to its invasions: "Summer Rain," "Autumn Clouds," "Colorful Journey."

In the companion film, for which the brothers wrote the script and acted, Arab and Tarzan take on a much more controversial topic: intra-Palestinian (Hamas vs. Fatah) fighting. The film, called "Colorful Journey" after an Israeli attack on the West Bank, is shot in Hollywood style, showing two Palestinians stalking each other, preparing to pounce and kill. The fact that the two men (Arab and Tarzan) look exactly alike brings home the point that their feud pits Palestinians against themselves. Just as it appears the "moment of truth" is at hand, a helicopter appears above, and it is clear – without being explicit – that the two have been killed by this new intruder. The helicopter represents Israel, and the message is loud and clear: Why are Palestinians fighting each other, when they face a common threat that will destroy them both?

These are risky subjects for such young men to take on. But when you grow up in Gaza, this is the stuff of survival.

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