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A State of Passion + ScreenTalk (15*)

SAFAR Film Festival

,Cinema 1
A state of Passion

After 43 horrific days working under bombardment in the emergency rooms of Gaza's hospitals, British-Palestinian surgeon, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, finds himself as a face of 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.  

Tagged with: Cinema SAFAR Film Festival 2025

Content notes: this film contains graphic footage of war including torture, injury, surgery and views of dead bodies.

Film information

Release year: 2024

Country: Palestine, Jordan

Director: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi

Runtime: 90 min

Ticket prices

£10.40

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Filmmakers Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi, close friends of the Abu Sittah's, 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.

Premiering at the 2024 Cairo International Film Festival and awarded the Saad Eldin Wahba Award for Best Arabic Film, A State of Passion offers a deeply human perspective on the cost of survival and the ongoing fight for dignity. 

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