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Screening will start at 12:00 Noon US EDT; 19:00 Palestine, 18:00 Europe, Running Time 84 minutes, 2010, English subtitles. The film screening will be followed by discussions with film director Vibeke Løkkeberg.
About the Film
Disturbing, powerful and emotionally devastating, Tears of Gaza is less a conventional documentary than a record – presented with minimal gloss – of the 2008 to 2009 bombing of Gaza by the Israeli military. Photographed by several Palestinian cameramen both during and after the offensive, this powerful film by director Vibeke Løkkeberg focuses on the impact of the attacks on the civilian population. The film shuttles between the actual bombings and the aftermath on the streets and in the hospitals. The footage of the bombs landing is indelible and horrifying, but it is on par with much of the explicit imagery on hand. White phosphorous bombs rain over families and children, leaving bodies too charred to be identified. The footage here is extremely graphic and includes children’s bodies being pulled from ruins. Recounting the horrors she has witnessed, one young girl collapses and sinks out of the frame. Years of economic embargo have left the area deprived of resources and have strained an already impoverished infrastructure. The wounded are carried to hospital for lack of ambulances, and an absence of fire trucks leaves home owners to put out fires on their own. What’s immediately apparent is that decades of military activity have made the population angry, nihilistic and vengeful. As one young boy says, “Even if they give us the world, we will not forget.” Løkkeberg contrasts these scenes with footage of bachelor parties, weddings and visits to the beach – social activities that epitomize daily life in Gaza during more peaceful times. Tears of Gaza makes no overriding speeches or analyses. The situation leading up to the incursion is never mentioned. While this strategy may antagonize some, it’s a useful method for highlighting the effects of the violence on the civilian population. Similar events certainly occurred in Dresden, Tokyo, Baghdad and Sarajevo, but of course Gaza isn’t those places. Tears of Gaza demands that we examine the costs of war on a civilian populace. The result is horrifying, gut–wrenching and unforgettable.
(Excerpt from Steve Gravestock, 2011 Toronto International Film Festival)
THE MAKING OF “TEARS OF GAZA”
The story of how the filmmakers made a film in Gaza without being allowed to cross the border.
One night 2008 while watching the news on television, Vibeke Løkkeberg saw a story about a boy crying after his father was killed during an Israeli bombing in Gaza. Although the international press was not allowed into Gaza, she had been able to follow the bombings on TV. Løkkeberg was shocked that the world media did not work to do a better job to cover the attacks on civilians in a densely populated region with no place for them to escape. It reminded her of the U.S. invasion of Iraq which was reported from a distance. The public was not allowed to see any war footage – the damage, violence and victims of the attacks.
Seeing the boy crying made Løkkeberg angry. She felt rage because of the devastation and the killing of innocent women and children. Løkkeberg decided then that she needed to break through the wall of silence. She wanted to get to know the people of Gaza and meet the women and children who are the victims of war. Løkkeberg felt that the population was being stigmatized as terrorists, yet these were ordinary man, women and children like her own family.
She went straight to the phone and called the director of Freedom of Expression Organization, Bente Roalsvik. She had seen the same little boy on TV. They agreed to do something. Vibeke Løkkeberg wrote the script for her film, and one week after the attack on Gaza, The Freedom of Expression Organization funded a trip for her and producer Terje Kristiansen to Israel to start the film.
However, the Israeli government did not allow them to enter Gaza. Instead they traveled to the West Bank with a Palestinian guide and then to Egypt where they took a 6–hour taxi ride through the Sinai Desert till they arrived at Rafha on the Gaza border. As they arrived, a bomb fell very close to their taxi. Initially they thought that their car was hit. Instead, a tunnel leading into Gaza had been targeted and destroyed. The bombing of the tunnels between Israel and Gaza can be a daily occurrence.
Egypt did not allow them to enter Gaza, so Løkkeberg and Kristiansen needed to find another way to tell their story. She talked to a Norwegian TV journalist stationed with the international reporters in front of Israel border to Gaza. They were covering the “Cast Lead” bombardment (the 2008 Gaza War). None of the international reporters from the world were granted permission to enter the Gaza’s strip during the attack. The journalist gave them his contacts inside Gaza including a production company that works for Reuter and many western TV stations. They were hired to work on the film.
Using Internet and phone, Løkkeberg and Kristiansen explained my ideas. Løkkeberg asked them to find the boy from the TV report, and also two more children of the same age who could tell their story. She explained that the film would not be the politics of the war. Instead it would be a feature documentary that would begin by focusing on daily life of people living in Gaza during the bombardment, and how they and society functioned during the bombardment – families living in the ruins, people getting married, families visiting the graveyard of killed family members, etc. Løkkeberg wrote down questions they would ask. She told them to shoot the subjects in close–up and keep the camera running and focused on their faces. While shooting the children, Løkkeberg wanted to keep the camera at the same height as the children’s faces. And she wanted a variety of camera angels and perspectives as they shot people moving and coming in and out of rooms. Løkkeberg wanted her film shot so that the audience would identify with the children.
Løkkeberg and Kristensen wanted to bring viewers closer to the victims in order to convince them that these are not “other people.” They want the audience to understand that the people of Gaza have the same feelings, desires and dreams as a typical family life living in the west.
The film was made over six months. The Gaza production team shot the footage, but they were not involved in the script or any of post-production. The film reflects Løkkeberg’s ideas and themes. She wanted to cater the film towards the western audience, so they would have a clear idea of what it means to be a civilian target in a war.
The children
Løkkeberg wanted to meet with the children used in the film, but Israel and Egypt did not allow her into Gaza, nor were the children allowed out. Amira, the girl seen in the last part of the film, was the only one of the children in the movie allowed out of Gaza so she could receive medical treatment. Løkkeberg with the help of a Palestinian doctor living in Norway was able to get to know her. Both Terje Kristiansen and Vibeke Løkkeberg followed Amira back to the border of Gaza to ensure that they could see her again.
It was a very dramatic journey. Løkkeberg and Kristiansen were where almost jailed at the Egyptian airport by the police for trying to bring Amira back to Gaza, as Palestinians are not allowed to return back to Gaza. However, using their Norwegian passport, they managed to enter Egypt with her. Again, they made the six hour drive through the Sinai Desert, and with the help of a bright moon, Løkkeberg and Kristiansen got Amira over the border into Gaza. The production team waited for her on the other side of the border and filmed her return. But Løkkeberg and Kristiansen were left behind. They have not seen her since.
All the material had to be smuggled out of Gaza. In Norway, the filmmakers collected the footage from Gaza. The film was edited in Oslo by Vibeke Løkkeberg and Terje Kristiansen. Christian Scanning handled the post–production sound design. Lisa Gerard and Marcello De Francisci composed the music.
Operation Cast Lead was now documented. Most of the footage showing the bombings has not been screened on western TV. The war against the civilians would be witnessed by the world. “Tears of Gaza” was invited to screen in the Toronto International Film Festival. Løkkeberg and Kristiansen had broken through the wall and all checkpoints.
Producer Terje Kristiansen & Director Vibeke Løkkeberg
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Witnessing the maiming and killing of children in a war, without being able to do anything about it, is a great challenge. The short glimpses of children’s faces displayed on my TV set, after they had lived through the war, was my motivation for making Tears of Gaza. A protest against all wars grew inside me. Wars are senseless, destructive, unworthy of mankind. Wars are never a solution to bilateral problems in the long run. In my films, I have always been concerned with the fate of the victims. In the Gaza–Israel conflict, there are presumably two victimized parties. A responsibility which both the USA and Europe will have to shoulder.
My hope is that this film will arouse the same feelings of protest among the audiences, and that it will bring inspiration to continue the seemingly endless struggle against poverty, suffering and war. In the film, I quote a father who sits with his phosphorous injured child: “What God do these people believe in, who can do this against children? And how can I gather the strength to forgive?”
This film has been a year in the making, and it was a pleasure to let its world premiere take place in Toronto. I started my career as a documentary filmmaker. From the 1970’s on I made feature films. With this film, I have chosen to use elements of fiction and to use the theater as a venue. In contrast to TV, the cinema provides the opportunity to absorb. My hope is that this emotional approach will spur protest, and the desire for people to contribute to making a better world. – Vibeke Løkkeberg
DIRECTOR/WRITER BIOGRAPHY
Born 1945 in Bergen Norway
Two children – Tonje born 1975 and Marie born 1982
Married to Terje Kristiansen who also works as her producer.
Made a concept out of being a mother and making films with her family.
Løkkeberg has become one of Norway's most well–known personalities and leading feminist artists. She is an actor, director, screenwriter and author.
