The first world won't recognize the problem with awfully bad internet connections outside their “I am on the train/ here's the tunnel/ the holiday on the mountain/ travel transit through a shit-hole” perspective. Even if you are in the middle of nowhere in Iceland, observing the people-empty landscape with volcanoes ready to show you the end of the world as you know it, you'll still be pretty much able to Instagram your crappy selfies at any given moment.
“My Gaza-Online” is screening at the London Palestine Film festival.
What it means to be dependent on very bad internet connections while your friends and family are left behind in the country you were born and raised in, but which struggles to keep any sense of normality under constant military threats is the core of Mohamed Jabaly's low-budget short “My Gaza-online” based on his countless attempts at normal whatsapp/viber/skype communication with his closest circle of friends and family in Gaza.
Even when the communication is established, there is always something going wrong. From my own immigrant experience, that is short of a nervous breakdown. You barely start asking questions, and there is a power shortage or shelling heard in the background. I had it in the mechanical form during the war in former Yugoslavia, spared of pictures and videos. Jabaly, on the other hand, isn't spared of anything.
From his “safe nest” in Norway, where he's filming himself in the snow storm trying to make basic errands, there is warm water and no shortage of power, something one of his friends addresses in their conversation: “I used to take four showers a day in Norway, even when I was bored”, he says and yet his tone is not bitter. He shortly mentions the very bad situation regarding immigration policies for Palestinian citizens, before inhaling some more smoke from his burning cigarette, always joking about practically everything.
Jabaly jokes with everybody, but worries mark his face. To be physically safe doesn't give him satisfaction, and despite all jokes and smiles, he is constantly alert, especially after one of his journalist friends dies of the sniper shot fired by an Israeli soldier.
All footage used in the film is from the social media or filmed during the director's talk to his friends and family, edited by himself. “My Gaza-Online” is the proof that you can make an engaging, hair-raising film with no budget, but with lots of heart.
