The Story Watch Trailer
Synopsis

A feature-length documentary film by Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi.

After 43 horrific days working round the clock under constant bombardment in the emergency rooms of Gaza’s Al Shifa and Al Ahli hospitals, British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, emerged to find himself as a face of Palestinian resistance.   

With news footage of him pale and shell-shocked reverberating around the world, he spoke of a catalogue of horrors from lacerated bodies, to amputations without anesthetics, orphaned children with no surviving family, and the deliberate targeting of medics and hospital facilities.  

This was Ghassan’s sixth and most horrific Gaza “war”.  Why does he do it?  Where does he find the strength to face it

again and again? How does it impact his family? How do they process the risks he takes? The answer lies simply in their shared passion: Palestine, a passion they articulate through their support of his perilous humanitarian work.  

Filmmakers Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi, close friends of the Abu Sittahs, share that same passion.  They were waiting anxiously for Ghassan to emerge from Gaza, following a long and terrifying journey through the night, to meet him in Amman.  Determined to capture his raw emotions they began filming him the moment he arrived through the door.  Following him to Beirut, Amman, London, Kuwait and Dubai, they and he explore their common State of Passion.

Impact Campaign
Highlights
Archiving Atrocities
Health Workers Witnesses
Press
The New Arab

"A State of Passion unfolds with the dynamics of a tense action film, unexpectedly culminating in spiritual catharsis."
Asas Media

"بيّنت مقابلاته الإعلامية شخصيّة حازمة منظّمة، قويّة، تعرف تماماً ماذا تريد وكيف تخطّط. لكن في “حالة عشق” رأينا غزّة من خلال عينيه وذكرياته، وقصصه عن المعاناة والأطفال وعن الصمود والمثابرة على المقاومة وبثّ روح الأمل مع انعدام الحياة."
Ahram Online

"'I cannot unsee what I saw, I cannot unhear the cries and screams I heard, and I cannot unsmell the smell of festering wounds.' These haunting words open A State of Passion: Ghassan Abu-Sittah..."
Partners
Reviews

"A wise way of spreading hope and inspiration that does not neutralise but overshadows the impact of horror, providing the strength to keep going." 

"الفيلم وثيقة مصوّرة لا تمحى، شهادة حيّة على واقع ومأساة، رسالة سينمائية سوف تشق طريقها إلى شاشات العالم ومهرجاناته وصحافته ونقده وإعلامه، وسوف يكون أثرها وتأثيرها عظيمين في هزّ بعض الضمائر الغافية."