Gaza has a locally produced feature film again, and that return comes with international recognition. Thirteen in Gaza, shot entirely in the territory amid ongoing conflict, received the NETPAC Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and has released an international trailer as it moves into the festival and sales circuit.
Director Hosam Abu Dan made the film on location using a Palestinian cast and crew while shooting during wartime conditions. Production finished with backing from the Doha Film Institute and the Arab Culture Fund, and Mad World is managing international sales. The film premiered in TIFF’s Centrepiece strand.
Abu Dan was unable to travel to Toronto, and the festival left the front-row seats set aside for him empty during the screening. He addressed the audience in a pre-recorded video, appearing against a rubble-lined backdrop, and spoke plainly about what it meant to complete the project under fire. "Honestly I wish I could have been with you in this moment… to have watched the film on the big screen, to see the birth of Thirteen in Gaza, a film I can only compare to my first child," he said.
The director also described the danger the crew encountered during production. "One of the hardest situations is that on the fourth day a nearby strike hit us and one of our colleagues was seriously injured," he said. "After that I started asking myself what it means to have a drama come out of Gaza after a long war and a long absence of dramas coming out of Gaza. Then I realized this film was made with blood."
Thirteen in Gaza follows 13-year-old Ragha, portrayed by Mary Ziyara, who survives a missile strike that destroys her home and most of her family. Firas Al-Masri plays her father as they try to survive in a crowded displacement camp, with Ragha navigating adolescence without privacy or her mother, and her father forced into bleak decisions to keep them alive.
The film was shot against the wider backdrop of the conflict that followed the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, which has killed close to 74,000 people and injured more than 173,000, leaving much of the territory in ruins. With its NETPAC recognition and an international trailer now circulating, Thirteen in Gaza is entering the international sales and festival stage under Mad World's management, where it will seek further screenings and distribution opportunities.
