When Gaza met Geneva and Nyon in one night - Superb start to film festival

Wow! What a superb way to start a film festival. The avant première film of Visions du Réel that was screened in Nyon last night, not only brought a standing ovation from the audience, but kicked the whole evening off with a great atmosphere as it came with a few surprises too. One of the surprises and certainly the most exciting one, came after the screening of the film "Aisheen -Still Alive in Gaza". Here the audience was treated to a satellite link up to Gaza itself on the night. As we sat in in our shiny new seats in Nyon (another surprise as the seats have now finally been updated), and were waving at our cameras, we were able to see a whole group of people sat in their seats in a club setting in Gaza waving at their cameras. A truly great collaborative affair and and an exchange of bonhomie between nationalities. It didn't matter that there was a considerable time delay in the sound, the idea worked and worked exceedingly well. The film itself is an intimate look on life in Gaza after the war. The film maker Nicolas Wadimoff filmed various families going about their daily life over a relatively short time frame. From the clowns entertaining the children in the schools to cheer them up in hard times, to the frustrations of the zoo keepers who had no food to feed their animals, to the humour of the boys who named one of the monkeys "Sharon" ("he's vicious and he attacks"), these individuals stories were superbly documented. See a U Tube trailer of the film here.   Then we saw the patience of the mechanic on the fairground who stoicly kept on repairing bits of machinery in order to get the fairground running. There was a sublime ending to the film at the sight of a solitary happy teenager as he spun around on a finally working fairground attraction.  Filming in Gaza obviously comes with risks and we saw and heard these risks as a bomb fell very close by when the cameras were turning. Daily life also meant that the Gaza citzens had to queue for food supplies and the chaos and claustrophobia of people becoming squashed in the queue was palpable. We could see their obvious and painful discomfort from the comfort of our new Nyon seats. Conversations among families were captured, the poignant talk from a grandfather to his grandaughter who had lost her mother in a bombing. He advised her to take heart and look positive and to try to look after her brothers and sisters. There were students who talked about their demotivated teachers, but we also saw teachers trying their best in the face of adversity, encouraging acting and role playing to ease tension and one teacher getting her little pupils to dip their hands in bright coloured paints to create wall hand paintings. Then we saw what was to become one of the main focusses and highlights of the show, a rap group called the DARG team  rehearsing in a small room and on that particular day with no electricity. Improvisation took over and the boom box was created by their voices,  the rappers worked on a song along while a toddler in the room accompanied them banging out a beat with her balloon.  The rappers were then later interviewed on Gaza radio and had to listen in to a barrage of criticism from listeners who said that their music wasn't representative of the people, the rappers took it all in good grace They have now gone on to record an album and this is where the evening last night really came into its own as they then performed via satellite for the Nyon audience. A collaborative group of rappers from Geneva then came on stage to accompany them. The audience loved it and responded by standing and clapping, some danced and the theatre resounded to the sound of rap. A great inaugaration, a great film. You can catch the film again on Monday 19th at 17:00 in the Salle Communale and Wednesday 21 at 14:00 in the Théatre de Marens. It will also be shown in cinemas in French Romandie from May 19th. Note: Films that are shown in both the Salle Communale and the cinema screening room Capitole 1 will be provided with  interpreters giving simultaneous translations if the subtitles are not in English.  In the other venues including the Theatre de Marens this is not guaranteed. The full list of programmes is available in the Visions du Réel brochure which can found either in the tourist board or in the Usine a Gaz (central area of the festival) or at the cinema itself in an outside rack on the exit.