Once Upon a Time in Gaza (Comedy)

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Director: Arab Nasser,Tarzan Nasser
Producer: Rani Massalha,Muriel Merlin,Pandora da Cunha Telles,Pablo Iraola,Rashid Abdelhamid,Marie Legrand,Lena Zimmerhackel,Michael Eckelt,Dorothe Beinemeier
Screenwriter: Amer Nasser,Marie Legrand,Tarzan Nasser,Arab Nasser
Cinematographer: Christophe Graillot
Composer: Amine Bouhafa
Editor: Roland Vajs,Sophie Reine
Production Designer: Tarzan Nasser,Arab Nasser
Costume Designer: Hamada Atallah
Key Cast: Nader Abd Alhay,Ramzi Maqdisi,Majd Eid

A young Palestinian man learns that revenge isn’t just a vicious circle – it’s cinematic.

In 2007, Yahya is working in a hole-in-the-wall Gaza City falafel store run by the charismatic Osama. Its pita rolls come wrapped in newspaper stories narrating Hamas’s rise to political power as Israel blockades the Strip, but certain falafels also have illicit opiates tucked in – which is how Yahya comes to witness a shocking crime that turns his life upside down. Two aimless years later, Yahya is plucked from obscurity to star in The Rebel, an action TV series made by Gaza’s Ministry of Culture. On a set where Palestinian actors play Israeli soldiers and real weapons are cheaper than replica props, Yahya is given an unexpected opportunity for a violent revenge showdown.

Palestinian identical twin directors Tarzan and Arab Nasser (Gaza Mon Amour, MIFF 2021) have always expressed their love for their hometown through Western cinema’s genre tropes. Their third feature, which won them the Un Certain Regard Prize for Best Director at Cannes, rolls up political satire, atmospheric crime melodrama and action-thriller beats into a tasty snack. Its darkly comic, Tarantino-esque vision slyly critiques violence as spectacle – in real life and onscreen, both in Gaza and everywhere else revenge is craved.

“Dark and clever … Once Upon a Time in Gaza touchingly portrays characters doing their best in a place that grants them few options and even fewer opportunities.” – The Hollywood Reporter