Inspired by our own experiences of making films in Gaza and especially the absurd difficulties we face, it comes naturally to want to tell a story about making movies against the tide and in a prohibitive context.
Using humour to describe a situation the whole population is trapped in, and through an ensemble of burlesque urban vignettes that repeat and slowly evolve in the wake of life’s surreal monotony in contemporary Gaza, Casting draws a portrait of a whole society and explores the dialectics of time, place and identity.
Widening the context of Gaza to any place where someone is struggling to produce art in the midst of social and institutional restrictions, we ask the broader question of how artists are supposed to work toward the betterment of their society, when there is a fundamental distrust of culture itself.
The script for Casting is now in the final stages of development. Our cinematographic vision, (which relies on a realist style in the spirit of European filmmakers like Jacques Tati, Emir Kusturica and Roy Andersson) uses long scenes and slow tracking movements in order to heighten the sense of time and reflect the protagonist’s experience of reality. A range of eccentric yet archetypal characters (to be played by non professional actors in order to add to the sense of spontaneity and realism) will help to transmit a universal vignette of time and place.
As filmmakers, we believe cinema to be, through entertainment, an important instrument of social critique, development and awakening. This film is our attempt to highlight the value of protecting diversity and individuality – in the Arab world and beyond – from political attempts at imposing a unilateral lens on life.