We have a different documentary from “Gaza” / Life, love and marriage are going on – Mehr News Agency Iran and world’s news
According to Mehr reporter, the documentary “Dastan Sahil Sharqi” directed by Ehsan Shadmani was aired on Sima Documentary Network as part of the 7th Documentary Television Festival.
Shadmani explained about the subject of this documentary: This documentary is about the Palestinian city of Gaza and depicts small stories of people’s lives in this city. In this documentary, we have discussed the current events in Gaza City from the perspective of the residents. It is interesting to know that this is the first time that a documentary is made by Iranian filmmakers in Gaza.
He said about the idea of making his documentary: We wanted to make a different documentary about Gaza; After the research that was done, we came to the conclusion that most of the news reports and clips that we see from Gaza are a little far from reality. These media productions mainly show Gaza as a full-scale scene of a war, as if this city is a military barracks. This happens while the audience realizes after watching this documentary that life is going on in this city; Young people get married, go to university, people have their daily activities, but in addition to all this, they resist and fight against the Zionist enemy.
The director of the documentary “The Story of the East Coast” said about the narrative form of this film: Our documentary is subject-oriented and in it we talk to different people from our own people in Gaza. Therefore, we depict sub-narratives of different characters. For example, we went to a lady who wrote a cookbook and collected the recipes of Canaanite and Palestinian dishes that existed in this region 700 years ago. With this book, he proved that Palestinians lived in this land from the past and there was no news of Zionists.
Shadmani added: Another of our characters is a member of the Palestinian national cycling team. In one of the sit-ins in 2018, a Zionist sniper shot him in the leg and he became disabled, but despite his disability, he continued to exercise and now participates in international tournaments.
Referring to the new images of Gaza City shown in this documentary, he said: For the first time, we are portraying an area called “Graveyard of the Aggressors”. This cemetery belongs to the First World War. The British and their allies wanted to advance in the war by occupying Gaza, but the people of Gaza stood up to them and during a war, 4,000 British aggressor soldiers were buried there. Al-Aqsa University is another place that is shown in this documentary, where we see the life of the people of Gaza. We also show the Rafah crossing. This area is the only place where Palestinians can enter or leave, although there are certain restrictions on their passage.
Shadmani explained about the choice of the name of this documentary and said: “East Coast” is a metaphor for Gaza; Because this city is located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.
The producers of this 35-minute documentary are: Director: Ehsan Shadmani, Producer: Hadi Nemati, Composer: Ali Gergin, Editor: Fateme Tuslinejad, Text Writer: Abdullah Nazari and Production Manager: Watheq Abu Hossan. This documentary was produced by the Miqat Media Production Group and is a product of the Culture and Education Group of Three TV Network.