Feature Narrative Film
TOTAL BUDGET
€1,100,000
CONFIRMED FINANCING
€523,000
CONTACTS
rashid.masharawi@gmail.com
+972 599239461
mohamed@humanfilm.co.uk
A love story takes place in Gaza, between a Palestinian man and an American woman from Washington who arrived with a delegation of foreign solidarity activists. The cultural and political contradictions, as well as the difference in customs and traditions, misunderstandings and wrong analysis; add absurdity, humor and complexity to the story.
‘Gaza D.C. addresses a love story that takes place in Gaza between a young Palestinian from a refugee camp in the sieged Strip, and a young American woman from Washington D.C, who arrives with a delegation of international activists in support of the Gazans.
In parallel to the evolving love story between the two, the woman falls in love with the place and the guy’s traditional, simple family. While the two are busy planning for their marriage, the woman’s parents along with the U.S. government believe she’s in Gaza against her own free will. Despite the fact that the woman puts enormous efforts into convincing her parents that she’s not being forced to stay in Gaza, but on the contrary she’s having a beautiful real love story; the parents refuse to believe her story because of their fear of losing their only child. Nevertheless, the political tension in the region is neither promising nor comforting; Gaza is being besieged by the Israeli occupation and ruled by the Islamic government of Hamas.
The cultural and political paradoxes and contradictions, the huge differences between the traditions of each family, the series of unpleasant individual misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the reality, in addition to constant intervention of the Gazan society and the U.S. government, are all elements that add drama yet facetiousness to the story.
Gaza D.C. is a film inspired by reality, about life and love in a place where people and dreams are under siege.
To create a cinematic language that serves the story visually, to keep the rare and special atmosphere, to translate the characters' psyche and rhythm, the scenes will be composed of external events from long shots through a moving camera that follows the event without the need for much chopping.
The camera movement and speed will be used to display an enriched cinematic presentation which serves the visual narrative, and to create a real living atmosphere throughout the film. Long camera shots with speedy camera movements and sometimes a shaking and tense motion will be used to reflect the general tension which accompanies the characters’ and locations’ livelihood and atmosphere. This tension is dominant in all the exterior scenes which are three quarters of the total scenes in the film. The exterior scenes will rely on big groups of people as well. Meanwhile, in the interior scenes the camera will move less, the shots will be shorter timewise and the general atmosphere will be calmer in relevance to the fact that one of the lead characters is deaf and mute.
The locations of both the interior and exterior scenes will depend on modest and only necessary set/décor, which will serve the story line and will help expose the various stages, places and characters’ evolution in the story. The set will reflect the psychology of the characters and their relationship to different times and places. The characters’ vision and narrative will be mirrored through the different designs and the architecture shown in various locations.
Different dimensions of light will be used in different locations to create the ecstatic feeling in the film. In the exterior scenes, natural light will be used. In the interior scenes, the concept of light and set will emphasize the psychological feeling of the characters’ instability and vulnerability. Light and set will resemble the individuals’ and the society’s disability of communication.
The sound of locations, events and characters will mainly rely on the original sound which will be taken during the shooting of the scenes. However, the original music of the film will be calm and will rely on limited musical instruments which can display a contradiction with the music and songs that are used in the scenes.
The editing will have speedy shots of the exterior scenes but with slower rhythm of shots when the camera is taking the characters’ state of mind, emotions and reactions. The interior scenes are highly dominated by the immense presence of the lead characters which will affect the rhythm of editing of the interior scenes. The editing of the interior will be related to the characters, events, the major turning points, the development of the characters, and the impact of the events on the dramatic build-up in the film.
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