Fatma Hassouna is as inspirational as any movie character I have ever met. Perhaps it’s because she is not a movie character. Fatima (aka “Fatma”) is a real-life refugee with real-life problems stemming from the fact that she and her people live in Gaza, which seems, quite frankly, insane. (Insane to me, at least.)
I know this land is important to a lot of people, but the Israelis indiscriminately bomb it every day. Well, you know, other than the starvation, the lack of proper medical care, housing, security, food, or the fact that you could die any second from any of the above, the place ain’t half bad.
And yet, Fatma always wears a smile. Gotta hand it to the woman. I mean, it’s not quite like a concentration camp, but it isn’t far off as far as quality of life goes. Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk is both the name of this documentary and the phrase Fatma repeats to herself every time she ventures out of doors. I take it to mean a prettier way of saying, “You take your life into your own hands.” Of course, that assumes that the biggest threats come from being exposed. That’s patently false in Gaza. We know this from when we get a good look at the landscape. You know the OKC bombing and how afterwards there was just rubble below and exposed rooms where a wall should be? This is what ALL of Gaza looks like today.
The film is almost 100% Fatma because every scene is investigative journalist (Writer, director, interviewer) Sepideh Farsi calling Fatma for some quality FaceTime. “Hi Fatma! How’s it goin’? Who’s still alive?” That sort of thing. We feel anxious when Fatma doesn’t pick up immediately. The pain is never ending in her corner of the globe. And there is a hefty price for all of it. At the beginning if the film, Fatma has just moved; house #1 is now rubble. She confesses that she and her family are “eating like animals” as in foraging and scrounging for every meal. Mind you, this is the good part of the film. True starvation arrives later. Yet Fatma always wears a smile. It’s inspiring … or foolish. It’s hard to tell which, sometimes.
The only way Gaza aggression has a chance of ending is with a two-state solution. This seems obvious to outsiders, But Israel (and by Israel, I mean Benjamin Netanyahu), generally, won’t hear of it. Hamas is, after all, a terrorist entity, and all of Gaza is occupied by Hamas, right? Geez, like Israel under Netanyahu isn’t terrorist, too. Israel is clearly the bully aggressor in this film, which is [checks notes] a documentary. I can’t say this was much of a film, tbh. This feels like something that weird hippie teacher makes you watch in high school and then gets all alarmed because 
you aren’t reacting correctly. Truth? There’s no right way to view this film or this situation. Every path leads to death; we strive for the path that yields the fewest, but that path is hazy. All we know for now is that whatever the correct path appears to be, we’re not on it.
I think a film like this is too basic to be an award winner. It’s just a collection of WhatsApp conversations. Every once in a while, we get the camera to find a news channel with a story already in progress. The picture is fuzzy, the cameraman gets lazy and either loses focus (literally) or pans to a corner of the TV set. The producers clearly made no effort to secure the news footage from the actual stations. Is it that hard? Apparently, it is. So, basically, this is a politically charged powderkeg of an appealing subject filmed with the same care as your eleven-year-old child using a video camera for the first time. I mean, if you need to love this film, you can, but I’m thinking the depressing dime-store production values and lack of organization didn’t necessarily need to mimic Gaza itself.
In Gaza, a woman had to flee
Becoming one hardened refugee
The bombs come all day
From far and away
And yet she always shows glee
Not Rated, 113 Minutes
Director: Sepideh Farsi
Writer: Sepideh Farsi
Genre: Films that are not going to make you happy
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Realists, pacifists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who believe in movie magic
