DIRECTOR'S FAQ
I made the film to raise awareness and inspire people to join the movement calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza and for freedom and justice for all Palestinians.
My connection with Palestine began in my teenage years and was profoundly strengthened during my travels in the Middle East in 2004 with my friend and 'The Last Sky' producer, Rihab Charida. During this time, I witnessed the harsh realities of Palestinians living in the Occupied West Bank and the refugee camps in Lebanon. I also interviewed elders who had been expelled from their homes in Palestine during the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and lived through unspeakable horrors during the Lebanese Civil War and various Israeli invasions of Lebanon. These experiences opened my eyes to the resilience and determination of the Palestinian people and laid the foundation for this documentary.
Since 7 October 2023, Israel has been carrying out one of the most documented genocides in world history. Like millions of people around the world, the images coming out of Gaza each day have shocked me to the core, and I have felt a deep responsibility to do what I can to help stop Israel’s brutal offensive.
I have been extremely frustrated with the Western media’s largely one-sided coverage, which has depicted Israel’s genocide as an act of “self-defence” and ignored the 76 years of oppression endured by the Palestinians at the hands of Israel. So, I decided that the best way to help was to make a documentary that presented a different narrative.
In the film, I seek to understand the Gaza war from the crucial standpoint of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The film combines footage that Rihab and I shot back in 2004 with intimate and unfiltered interviews we recorded in the camps in Lebanon back then and this year to explore the parallels between the 1948 “Nakba” and the current war on Gaza. I also use my personal journey and knowledge to weave the past with the present and examine why the armed resistance is revered by so many Palestinians and viewed by them as the only hope for to return to Palestine.
In making the film, I considered it necessary to analyse the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and how it is directly connected to the current Gaza war as well as Israel’s history of aggression against Lebanon.
My hope is that the film will foster understanding and meaningful dialogue by amplifying the voices too often silenced and investigating key aspects of the conflict that are missing from mainstream reporting.
The film was shot in Occupied Palestine (Nablus, Hebron, Jenin, Budrus, Qalandia, Akbara) and Lebanon (Shatila, Ain El-Helweh and Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camps and Kfarsghab village) in 2004 and in Lebanon (Shatila refugee camp, Beirut, Nabatieh, Srifa and Qana) in 2024.
The film also uses archive and other footage from different sources of Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and various Western countries.
It is a reference to the poem, “The Earth is Pressing Against Us”, by the iconic Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. The poem was first published in Darwish’s 1986 anthology, “Fewer Roses”. In the poem, Darwish asks:
“Where should we go after the last border?
Where should the birds fly after the last sky?
Where should the plants sleep after the last breath of air?”
Although the poem was written almost 40 years ago, its harrowing description of Israel’s efforts to destroy the Palestinian people and drive them further and further away from their land are just as pertinent today as they were back then.
Equally relevant are the final lines of the poem, which reinforce the resilience of the Palestinians and the inter-generational continuation of their resistance against Israeli occupation:
“Here we will die. Here, in the final passage.
Here or there, our blood will plant olive trees.”
Although the voices of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been largely ignored by Western media over the past several decades, they are highly illuminating about the events currently taking place in Gaza and the region.
Nothing occurs in a vacuum. The story of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon provides the crucial context necessary to comprehend the Hamas-led military offensive on 7 October, 2023 and the genocidal war that Israel has been waging in Gaza since then.
In 1948, about two-thirds of the entire Palestinian population were violently uprooted from their homes in Palestine by Zionist militias and forced to flee to Lebanon and other neighbouring Arab countries, as well as Gaza and the West Bank. Israel has denied these Palestinians the right to return — despite it being enshrined under international law — and most have had to languish in overcrowded refugee camps ever since, together with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
This mass ethnic cleansing during the creation of the State of Israel is known by Palestinians as the “Nakba” and is the original sin at the root of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The conditions of the refugee camps in Lebanon are particularly dire and these refugees have also witnessed unspeakable horrors during the Lebanese civil war and Israel’s various invasions of Lebanon over the years.
The Last Sky features interviews that Rihab and I conducted with Palestinian elders in Lebanon who survived the Nakba, as well as their descendants. Their stories bear eerie resemblances to the stories that have been coming out of Gaza since 7 October and prove the lie of Western claims that this conflict started on 7 October and that Israel’s current military offensive in Gaza is about “self-defence”.
It is not possible to have a proper conversation about the Gaza war without discussing the armed resistance.
It is the armed resistance that Israel has used as its justification to carry out its brutal military campaign in Gaza. Israeli political and military leaders — together with the Western mainstream media — have demonised the armed resistance to garner support for its brutal military campaign in Gaza.
At the same time, it is the armed resistance that has, together with the remarkable steadfastness of the Palestinian people, prevented Israel from achieving a military victory in Gaza. Similarly, in Lebanon, the armed resistance has managed to exert enormous pressure on Israel to end its war on Gaza and to deter a full-scale Israeli invasion of Lebanon thus far.
While it is true that there are many forms of resistance, the reality is that is that the armed resistance has been the single most important means by which the Palestinians and Lebanese have been able to free their land from Israeli occupation. The liberation of South Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005 are the two most notable examples of this.
By contrast, the so-called peace process has not achieved any of its stated goals for the Palestinians and in fact has provided cover for Israel to expand its colonisation of Palestinian land.
Despite the fundamental importance of the armed resistance, it is a topic that is generally considered too “controversial” to discuss in any meaningful way in documentaries about the conflict that are produced in the West. I suspect that a large part of this is due to a fear held by filmmakers — with good reason — that to do so would hinder their ability to obtain funding to make the film and/or to have the film distributed on established platforms.
I was privileged enough to be able to self-fund the production of the film and so I did not need to “water down” the message to placate donors. The film is bold, and I am aware that the opinions expressed by the interviewees will likely be confronting to some viewers. However, I believe that there is a strong public interest in the viewpoints of relevant stakeholders being heard and for people to understand the reasons why the armed resistance exists and why so many Palestinian and Lebanese people support it. Only then can people make informed decisions about a conflict that has generated an unprecedented level of interest amongst people in the West, particularly the youth.
In the film, I discuss the armed resistance in a way that neither celebrates nor condemns it. However, I recognise that the film’s emphasis on this topic and the views of some of the interviewees may cause difficulties in the distribution of the film. Notwithstanding this, I consider the armed resistance to be of such significance to the present conflict that it would be intellectually dishonest and journalistically unprincipled for me to engage in any form of self-censorship.
This film is a 100% self-funded and not-for-profit project. It is my contribution to the movement for freedom and justice in Palestine.
I believe it is important for as many people as possible to see this film. Releasing it without charge ensures that money will not be a barrier to anyone seeing it.
I do not charge a fee to groups who use the film for screenings in their communities. My only condition is that the film is not used for commercial purposes but rather for educational or Palestine-related fundraising purposes.
When the film is eventually released publicly online, it will be available for everyone to view for free.