Rehab Nazzal’s VIBRATIONS FROM GAZA wins Best Short at the BFI London Film Festival

release date October 22 2024

Rehab Nazzal’s gripping Palestinian documentary VIBRATIONS FROM GAZA walked home with the Best Short Film Award at the recently concluded BFI London Film Festival, which ran from October 9th to the 20th in the UK.

The film previously held its world premiere at the Palestine Cinema Days Film Festival in its home country before screening at numerous festivals and winning several awards, including Best Short at the Iran International Film Festival and the Azur Phoenix Award for Short Films at the Middle East and South Africa Film Festival.

VIBRATIONS FROM GAZA offers a glimpse into the lives of deaf children in the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip. Through the voices of children who have grown up under the relentless blockade and repeated Israeli aggression, it vividly conveys how they experience the bombings, destruction, and drone buzz overhead.

The children describe their perceptions of missile strikes by sensing vibrations in the air, tremors in the ground, and the echoes of collapsing buildings.

The film raises the question of whether the deafness these children face is a natural condition or a consequence of Israel's use of heavy weaponry, including sonic weapons.

The festival’s Short Film Competition jury praised the film saying, “We were astonished by the caliber of films in this competition and struggled to only award one film. Our winner is a film that uses sound to send reverberations through our bodies and souls.”

“Through its simplicity of storytelling, VIBRATIONS FROM GAZA demands our presence, urging us not only to bear witness but to deeply reflect on the impact of growing up deaf in Gaza — a reality that many of us could never fully comprehend.”

As for the film’s director, Nazzal, she thanked the jury and reflected on her film in a statement saying, “I thank the BFI London Film Festival jury for honoring VIBRATIONS FROM GAZA with the Short Film Award and for recognizing the experiences of the Deaf children in Gaza - who have known only torment, a suffocating 17-year-long siege, and frequent onslaught by the settler-colonial state of Israel.”

The short documentary — which is one of the last documentaries to come out of Gaza before the ongoing war — features children Amani Iz Eldin, Musa and Mustafa Samour, and Isra Abuasr.

Rehab Nazzal is a one-woman show in this film, serving as its director, producer, and writer. She also lensed the film alongside Mohammed Abu Alkas, Mohammad Nateel, and Nawras Sameer; edited it alongside Rana Nazzal, Hamadeh, and Serene Alahmad; and worked on the film’s sound with Bruno Belanger.

The film's world sales rights are handled by MAD World, while its Arab-world sales and distribution are handled by MAD Distribution.

Rehab Nazzal is a Palestinian-born multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Montreal, Canada; and Bethlehem, Palestine.

Her work deals with the effects of settler and colonial violence on people, on land, and other non-human life in Palestine.

Nazzal’s photography, videos, sound, and installations have been exhibited and screened in Palestine, across Canada, and internationally.

She is currently teaching at Dar Al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, Palestine.

Nazzal has created multiple short videos, blurring the boundaries between documentary and video art, including DIMA, A NIGHT AT HOME, CANADA PARK, BODIES IN MOTION, MOURNING, and BIL’IN.