Rediscovered MiniDV tapes from 2001 take Kamal Aljafari on a journey through Gaza with Hasan Elboubou. What begins as a search for a prison mate becomes a cinematic reflection on memory, where markets, cafés, beaches and smiles appear, fractured by constant threat. Meditative images and music capture the fragile beauty of a Gaza long lost, mirroring today’s cruelties.

Children laugh on the beach as the rising sea surrounds them. Rediscovered MiniDV tapes from 2001 reveal Gaza as it once was: vibrant, intimate, yet marked by constant threat. Director Kamal Aljafari travels with Hasan Elboubou from north to south in search of an old friend, capturing along the way the textures of daily life—markets, cafés, beaches, and smiling faces—interrupted by artillery fire and the shadow of violence. What emerges is a cinematic meditation on memory and a tragic time capsule of a place and people irreversibly changed. The careful imagery and meditative score by Simon Fisher Turner and Attila Faravelli document the beauty and dignity of ordinary life, even as the cycle of destruction remains palpable. A poignant and essential chronicle of loss and endurance in a world increasingly fractured.