Palestinian film director meets movie enthusiasts in northeastern Türkiye

By Goktug Ergun

TRABZON, Türkiye (AA) - Palestinian film director Mohammed Almughanni met Tuesday with movie enthusiasts in Türkiye's northeastern province of Trabzon as part of the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry's Türkiye Culture Route Festivals.

Almughanni's short documentary film Shujayya, which tells the story of a Gazan family whose homes were destroyed in Israeli bombings; Son of The Streets, which sheds light on the struggle of 13-year-old Khodor, who lives in a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon to gain an identity; and An Orange from Jafaa, a short film about Palestinian teenager Mohammed, who is looking for a taxi to take him through an Israeli checkpoint, were viewed with interest.

After the screenings, Almughanni thanked the Turkish people for their sympathy and support for Palestinians.

Almughanni said he conveyed what he saw during his childhood in his films.

"My village was near the fence on the border with Israel in Gaza.

"From my childhood, I could see and hear the conflicts there, and I dreamt of reflecting the images I witnessed then onto the cinema in the future," he said.

Recalling the words of the famous Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, Almughanni said: "We are not just numbers, we are human beings."

"Every single person who died in Gaza has their own story. Every person who died and every person we lost deserves to be a movie,” he added.

"It doesn't end with the dead. All those who remain from the war will continue to experience this trauma for the rest of their lives. They will remember this period of crisis in every period of their lives. Israel's attacks do not end with a momentary attack."

Almughanni said that thanks to the cinema, people have realized that the oppression caused by Israel is nothing new, noting that it helped people become aware of the ongoing oppression of Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack last year by the Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 37,600 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 86,100 others injured, according to local health authorities.

More than eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Serdar Dincel from Istanbul