QUICK’N DIRTY: LIVE FROM VENICE

Nicolas Wadimoff interviews nine Palestinian men and women from Gaza. They fled the Occupied Territory into Egypt in mid-2024, a few months after the Gaza Genocide began, and just before their Southern neighbours shut their borders. Sixty-one-year-old filmmaker Nicolas Wadimoff – now on his 13th feature film, including various politically-charged works – wanted to shoot his documentary in his native Switzerland, but the European nation refused to give the Palestinian subjects a visa. So they travelled to South Africa, one of the few nations in the world that does not impose visa restrictions on their nation.

A young woman remembers the moment her sister was murdered. Another female character describes the sheer horror of seeing her entire street destroyed. A young man reveals how he entered Gaza in order to visit his family, and how his arrival drew mixed reactions. After all, who would put themselves in such a dangerous position for the sake of seeing their relatives? A teenage girl reveals that her plight continued long after she left Palestine. Her schoolmates bullied her in Egypt, and accused her of abandoning her native ladn. She felt particularly awkward at having to intone Egypt’s national anthem: she only learnt the lyrics of the Palestinian ones.

The stories are very insightful, however the complete absence of archive images, photos and telephone footage makes the developments a little stiff and stagey. This prevents viewers from fully empathising with the individual characters. The outcome feels a little cold and soulless, particularly for a topic of such urgency. These people were not given the opportunity to unload their emotional baggage. The choice of traditional talking heads with a black background and three-point lighting renders the entire endeavour dark and bleak. Even the moment when a man breaks down in tears feels strangely distant. We never see the “battered bodies and the wounded souls” to which the director alluded in his statement, neither literally nor metaphorically.

The map of Gaza is painted on the floor of a large warehouse, with nine houses inside. The “residences” merely consist of lines drawn on the floor, and the characters are asked to reenact their experience accordingly. This is reminiscent of Lars von Trier’s Dogville (2003). The difference is that these people are not skilled actors, and they do little more than walk aimlessly across the floor markings. I have no idea what the intended symbolism is. The antics feel pointless and random.

This is a well-meaning film with interesting stories to tell. Unfortunately, the poor creatives choices do not allow it to reach its full potential.

Who is Still Alive just premiered in the 82nd Venice International Film Festival