‘Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk’ review: Gaza documentary is a poignant final testimony

Dir: Sepideh Farsi. France/Palestine/Iran. 2025. 110mins

This celebration of resilience was remodeled right into a poignant final testimony by the dying of Gaza resident and documentary topic Fatma Hassona in an Israeli airstrike on April sixteenth. Sepideh Farsi’s documentary Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Stroll is constructed round Farsi’s video calls with Hassona over the course of 2024, and gives an intimate portrait of each day life as Gaza turned a hell on earth. The world premiere in Cannes ACID needs to be the beginning of an in depth competition journey for a movie with similarities to the Oscar-winning No Different Land in the way it brings a person perspective to unimaginable occasions.  

A celebration of somebody who was each unusual and extraordinary

Iranian director Farsi has spent a big a part of her profession making an attempt to convey life in her homeland with movies like Tehran With out Permission (2009) and La Sirene (2023). Her attribute curiosity and empathy are additionally the driving forces behind Put Your Soul, as she seeks to know what life is like for unusual Palestinians because the world round them is decreased to rubble. A mutual good friend launched her to Hassona, a 24 year-old dwelling in northern Gaza. Their video calls slowly enable her to assemble an image of hardship, and likewise to develop a mutual friendship.

Each name between them feels as if it could possibly be the final however Hassona all the time seems, adjusting her hijab and sporting an enormous grin. Regardless of every part she endures, she appears pleased to speak to somebody from the skin world who sees her and cares about what is going on.

Farsi makes use of footage from tv stations CNN, Al Jazeera and France 24 to sketch in the principle occasions from the interval, overlaying the hopes of a doable peace deal, the judgement of the Worldwide Courtroom Of Justice and the continued destiny of Israeli hostages. Hassona’s conversations make every part private as she discusses relations who’ve been killed, close by buildings which have been destroyed, the shortage of water and electrical energy and finally the specter of hunger. She confides that she desires of consuming rooster once more, or savouring a single piece of chocolate.

There isn’t any trace of self-pity in Hassona’s phrases as she describes the dying of a good friend or an aunt whose head is present in a unique avenue to her physique. She consistently thinks of others, serving to to distribute any obtainable help to hungry youngsters.  Her cheerful optimism within the face of horrible situations is inspirational.  We study extra about her, together with a want to journey that’s significantly ironic because the Paris-based Farsi makes contact from Montreal, Morocco and Cannes as she travels for work. A bond types between these two ladies who by no means meet. Farsi sees one thing of her personal spirit in Hassona, and Hassona feels that she has discovered a mom determine. We will additionally sense the helplessness that consistently frustrates Farsi.

Over the course of the movie, we meet members of Hassona’s household and likewise Farsi’s cat however the focus is all the time on the conversations that proceed regardless of the issues of communication inside a wartorn land. The photographs of their calls, misplaced connections and cut up display screen encounters give the movie the marginally monotonous look of 1 lengthy video name. Farsi does range the movie’s visible attraction by the in depth use of Hassona’s pictures of resilience, survival and the human value of battle. A person sits in a throne-like, winged armchair amidst a scene of utter devastation, a younger hand is all that’s seen of a corpse beneath the wreckage of a constructing. These photographs are highly effective and testify to her talent as a photographer; considered one of many skills that included writing poetry and composing songs. 

Hassona’s optimism even endures of their final name of April fifteenth, 2025  as she receives the information that their movie has been accepted for Cannes. Hassona and members of her household have been killed the next day. Farsi’s movie now stands as a robust memorial to somebody who was each unusual and extraordinary.