‘Bombs and destruction, all the time and everywhere’: A film by 22 Palestinian directors is in the running for an Oscar
Aws Al-Banna, Reema Mahmoud and Nidaa Abu Hasna are three of the filmmakers who share their experiences in ‘From Ground Zero,’ which has been shortlisted in the Oscars’ international feature category
Seated among the ruins of a building in Gaza City, Aws Al-Banna. 28, speaks to the camera about Natalie, his fiancée. They had planned on getting married and starting a family, “sharing a future” and “continuing to make memories.” The rubble on which he sits was once the building she lived in. “The war took her away from me. It’s taken everything from me. She died with the rest of her family in a bombing,” says Al-Banna in a videocall from a refugee camp in Khan Yunis, in the southern region of the Gaza Strip.
