‘You should make cinema, even in war’: Rashid Masharawi on From Ground Zero
The Palestinian film-maker on his latest work, curating 22 short films from artists on the ground in Gaza
“In Gaza there is no safe place,” reflects Rashid Masharawi. “Yesterday people were told to move to a ‘safe area’, and today that same place was bombed.”
The veteran Palestinian film-maker may no longer live in Gaza, but each destroyed family and home still feels deeply personal. “They are not just bombing buildings. They are bombing life, memory, belonging,” he says.
In the face of such colossal loss, many Palestinian artists, musicians and film-makers have turned to their craft as a means to preserve their culture and immortalise their people. And in From Ground Zero, a collection of short films released in UK cinemas this week, we see a multifaceted portrait of Gaza from 22 different directors.
The project was conceived by the celebrated and prolific director Masharawi (Curfew, Palestine Stereo), who grew up in Gaza’s Al-Shati refugee camp and has spent many years mentoring young artists in Palestine.
In From Ground Zero, which debuted at the Toronto international film festival 2024, he acts as curator, asking film-makers still inside Gaza to document life there at the end of 2023. He coordinated the project remotely, training and supporting contributors through unimaginable obstacles.
“Every day I am in contact with Gaza,” he says, speaking over video call from London, though he continues to live and work in the West Bank. “My family and friends are there. People are moving, losing homes, searching for food and safety. These are personal stories that don’t appear in films or the news. But I always believe, there is no war forever and also no occupation forever.”
What sets From Ground Zero apart from other films that have emerged from Palestine over the past two years is its range of ingenuity. Spanning fiction, documentary, animation, surrealism, comedy and experimental video art, the shorts reflect the breadth of talent on the ground and the persistence of Palestinian identity under siege.
Though he wasn’t in Gaza, Masharawi still wanted to respond as a film-maker after 7 October. Recognising the amount of talent that was under siege, he took on the role of artistic adviser and organiser. Some of the film-makers are established professionals he’d previously worked with, while others are up and coming. The former group used the professional equipment already at their disposal, while the latter used mobile phones to capture short films ranging from two to six minutes long. The brief was simple: Masharawi wanted personal, untold stories.
Making these films was perilous. Access to electricity and the internet was scarce, materials had to be smuggled in and out. Assistants risked their lives to deliver hard disks to be uploaded and sent to Masharawi. Often the only power was in hospitals and where the media were working from, but those became among the places most targeted by the Israel Defence Forces.
Masharawi insists on holding the films to a cinematic standard, even under such difficult circumstances. “I believe that if you focus on the art, the film will live longer. You should make cinema — even in war. And even with bad sound or poor image quality. We were not comfortable and we could not do all that we wanted, but these are deep stories. They are cinema.”
From Ground Zero was screened in Gaza in August 2024 “between tents during the day, because in the night it’s not possible. It’s too dangerous,” says Masharawi. “For me it was very moving to see the film-makers with the characters, with the people, watching the films they made about the war, during the war,” he says.
But the human cost for those involved has been extreme. Bashar Al Balbisi, the director of the short Charm, was injured so badly by an attack in July his leg was nearly amputated. Al Balbisi, who had been a dancer, was saved after being evacuated to France.
The girlfriend of Aws Al Banaa, the creator of Jad and Nathalie, was killed in an explosion and her body remains trapped under rubble. And yet, they continue: “Even those who lost family or homes keep filming,” Masharawi says. “One director lost his son while he was searching for food and today he is still shooting. That is the spirit of this project.”
Masharawi is currently working on the follow-up, From Ground Zero Plus, a series of 10 documentaries.
Beyond human life, the physical destruction of Gaza’s cities is also being mourned. “When they bomb a building, they are bombing your childhood, your neighbours, your first girlfriend,” Masharawi says. “It is not about stones or cost. There is no price for these things.”
From Ground Zero’s submission to the 2025 Academy Awards was an act of defiance in itself, challenging the west’s long neglect of Palestinian cinema. For decades, awards bodies including the Oscars refused even to consider films from there on the grounds of statehood. In 2024, the Cannes film festival cancelled the screening of From Ground Zero, despite having shown Masharawi’s previous films and awarded him its Unesco prize for 1994’s Curfew. In protest, Masharawi screened the film via projection outside the festival grounds. By 2025, Palestine was given a pavilion at Cannes, with two films selected to compete.
Yet Masharawi insists the ultimate goal is not accolades or acceptance from the west. “We are not after articles, awards or tickets,” he says. “We want the war to stop. We want food delivered. We want the genocide to end. Until then, I am disappointed by the reaction of all these countries. If they want to prove otherwise, they must stop the war.”
From Ground Zero does not comfort or provide solutions as to how to live in a world like this one — where Israel plans to occupy Gaza City and displace a further 1 million people. Instead, across its 115 minutes are 22 glimmers of hope: of art persisting, of memory reclaimed, of joy amid ruins. As Masharawi puts it: “Sometimes it is more important to show a girl dancing than a bomb falling. Because in that moment, you prove we are still alive.”
From Ground Zero is in UK cinemas from Friday 12 September.
