The Story Watch Trailer
Synopsis

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

After the start of the war on Gaza and 43 horrific days working round the clock under constant bombardment in the emergency rooms of 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, Ghassan Abu Sittah was a first-hand witness to medicide. 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 medical and health services as an Israeli weapon of war.   

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, and Kuwait, they and he explore their common State of Passion.

Impact Campaign
Film and Forum
Archiving IOF Atrocities
Health Workers Witnesses
Documenting Destruction
Press
Le Club de Mediapart

"That is perhaps the deepest ambition of this quietly furious film. It does not offer the comfort of distance; it refuses to let Gaza become a closed chapter or a “conflict” safely contained in the past. Nor does it flatter the viewer with the illusion that watching alone is enough."
Wisconsin Muslim Journal

"Carol and Muna have chosen perhaps the most delicate way to convey the horrifying details of a subject as non-delicate as genocide.

Their mission is not merely the counting or exposure of victims, nor is it just an act of mourning. Instead, they explore the flip side of tragedy — how exceptional figures like Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah are forged in the fire of hellish circumstances."
Film Ireland

"While the film elicits both desperation and intrigue, what Mansour and Khalidi ultimately seek to uncover is the boundary of human endurance... and how few can push it as far as 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."

"An achingly beautiful portrait of British Palestinian surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah" 

"وراء بنية الفيلم التي تبدو للوهلة الأولى بسيطة، ثمة مصفوفة معقدة من ثنائيات العادي والمأسوي، والعادي والبطولي، والسياق الأوسع للمسألة الفلسطينية وبين الحيوات الفردية."

"Grief, heartbreak, pride, rage, disbelief, and finally… A renewed determination." 

"This documentary is the definition of 'bearing witness'." ~ N. D. (Audience Member, Ghent) 

"This is an extraordinary film that shows both the human cost of war and the incredible resilience of those who continue to provide care under unimaginable conditions." 

"For now, in a world that still treats Palestinian lives as expendable and Palestinian stories as optional, A State of Passion is a necessary inconvenience."