In The Other Gaza, Sweden-based filmmaker Wafa Jamil connects with her family back home through raw video calls, all the time trying to find ways to explains the devastation of her country to her 10-year old daughter Leia. But there is another story she wants to tell.
“Gaza is often portrayed through destruction and conflict,” she said during her Sunny Side New Voices pitch. “But there is another Gaza, one that rarely makes the news. It’s the Gaza of kitchens filled with laughter, of sisters sharing stories over WhatsApp, of the children growing up surrounded by love despite uncertainty. It’s the Gaza of my family.”
“The Other Gaza is my personal journey to restore that truth,” she continued. “It’s told through the intimate lens of my life, between Stockholm and Gaza. Through my 10-year-old daughter, Leia, who’s growing up far away from a land that lives in her heart. And through the voices of my family, my sister Karima, my brother Adel and his wife, who are still living in Gaza, and simply trying to survive, to hold on to love and to hold each other.”
“This film is about more than war. It’s about resilience, motherhood, memory and identity. It’s about how children see the world that we have [made] for them. It’s about refusing to let destruction erase beauty. Because even amid the cries, people still laugh, still hope, still sing and still dream.”
The Other Gaza was presented at AJB DOC in 2024 where it won the Sunny Side award, and where it was acquired for broadcast by Al Jazeera. In La Rochelle, Jamil is looking for a sales agent and other broadcast deals. She expects to complete her film in October 2026.
In 2024, Swedish co-producer Ulf Boström commented: to BDE “The first time I met Wafa one year ago. I was so taken by her story. Wafa is displaced. She was plucked up from Palestine and dropped down in Stockholm for another life. How can she explain her love for Gaza to her daughter Leia, a happy-go-lucky kid, born and raised in Stockholm? Wafa has a passion I have rarely met. She taught me so much about how deep roots go, and how one place can be at the same time heaven and hell. She possesses a story that the world needs to hear.”
Jamil continued at Sunny Side. “It’s fragmented between exile, home, between mother, daughter and resilience of family… between past and present, between the visual language, contrasting the beauty of Gaza landscapes with the current devastation,” she said. “I’m carrying on not just as a filmmaker, but as a mom, as a daughter and a sister having a family surviving a genocide. It’s my story, but it’s not only about me and my family, but so many Palestinians, and for other families who are having also a dedicated loss across the borders.”
Adel Ksiksi, Head of Al Jazeera Industry Days, spoke about the film from the Sunny Side stage. “We like it, we love it and that’s why it’s here at Sunny Side. It is a universal topic, a very relevant one [of] human stories, and we wish all safety for your family and what is next.”
“You bring us back to Gaza, one where there’s buildings, people walking, smiling, celebrating, laughing, doing lots of things. But Gaza now, there is nothing left. Everything is destroyed by this genocide. [So] we are waiting for your film to be accomplished, and the audience in the region and worldwide are looking for your film to be broadcast very soon, and for you to bring your story there.”
Back in September 2024, Wafa Jamil spoke to Business Doc Europe after her AJB DOC pitch (Sarajevo) during which she articulated her cherished dream – to show Leia this other Gaza, the fairyland that she left almost 30 years ago. “For me, home is the essence of orange blossom and the taste of summer water melon, which became the symbol of Palestine,” she said.
