WHILE Cairo Film Festival was cancelled by Egypt’s Minister of Culture Neven el-Kelany “due to the Israel-Hamas conflict,” the El Gouna Film Festival has just concluded its sixth edition, which was originally scheduled for October. 

The festival showed solidarity towards the Palestinian people throughout. From the opening ceremony, where Palestinian singer Elyanna sang the moving song Olive Branch, conveying the profound sadness for her brethren in Gaza, to a panel discussion, “Camera in Crisis: A Lens on Palestine,” where renowned Palestinian film-maker Rashid Masharawi (Laila’s Birthday, 2008) declared that the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and Palestinian cinema did more for the cause than any politician. 

Film-makers Khalil al Muzian (Gaza Sderot: Life in Spite of Everything, 2009) and Mohammed Almughanni (Shujayya, 2016) were more despairing, asking “What more can we depict?” and pointing out that “what is happening in Gaza today is bigger than any film can portray.”