Rabat – Swiss director Nicolas Wadimoff, known for his documentaries on Gaza, is returning to Venice this year with “Who Is Still Alive?” The film will premiere on September 3 in the independent Venice Days section, where filmmakers explore personal stories that often reflect broader social realities.
Wadimoff’s latest work gives Gaza a clear, unvarnished voice. It features nine Palestinian refugees who escaped Gaza, standing on a black floor marked with white outlines of homes, neighborhoods, and camps. Their stories emerge from beneath those outlines, stories of loss, resilience, and the struggle to remain human in the face of erasure by Israel.
The director says this film avoids sensationalism, “What the survivors of Gaza have endured cannot be told with words alone. Gestures, breaths or silences can be more telling, sometimes.”
“Whatever word we use for this campaign of systematic destruction and erasure, our common framework for understanding the world seems to have become ineffective in the face of this unspeakable thing, which must not, however, remain unheard and unseen,” he adds, hoping that viewers will listen, feel, and witness, beyond political narratives.
Wadimoff is no stranger to telling stories about Palestine. He previously directed “Aisheen” in 2010, which premiered at Berlinale; then “The Apollo of Gaza,” and “Operation Libertad.” All his work reflects a personal, human-centered style, avoiding dramatic framing in favor of observational narration.
Venice Days, or Giornate degli Autori, is the independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival known for showcasing bold voices and urgent themes. This year’s selection includes a mix of documentaries and fiction from around the world, united by the idea that the personal is political.
“Who Is Still Alive?” isn’t adopting a journalist tone, nor does it push a political agenda. It’s about endurance and memory. The film asks viewers to stand with those whose lives are shaped by war, not as headlines or objects of pity, but as people with dreams and scars.
The Venice premiere will give the film a much deserved international platform. It will be screened in Sala Perla to both festival attendees and the wider public, yet another sign of Wadimoff’s appeal and the importance of bringing Gaza’s humanity to the fore.
At a moment when Gaza’s voices are often drowned out amid Israel’s ongoing genocide, Wadimoff’s documentary is an act of bearing witness.
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