Ambulance is a full length documentary film made by Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly. Ambulance is shot entirely in Gaza city and it is a frenetic, chaotic and visceral first person/eye witness account of what the people there go through every day. The camera work is shaky but it drags the viewer into this chaotic world the same way those who are dragged out of the rubble. There are frenetic scenes of people screaming or those who come to help pull victims out of the rubble are actually a hindrance. The film takes place during the last war in July 2014, when drone and Israeli rockets pummelling the city.
It doesn’t really matter where you stand on the issue: is Gaza Occupied, are Israel right to do what they do. Ambulance shows the reality – death, destruction, suffering, hope even in the darkest hours.
This is a vital film as it carries on after the news camera crews have stopped – what happens to those people. How do you carry on living in a situation like that? So many of the individuals remain nameless and faceless and that in itself speaks volume about war and suffering – we cannot know everyone’s names but in this film Jabaly starts a conversation where we start to question the meaning of it all.
Ambulance will be shown as part of the BBC Arabic Film Festival which runs from 24 to 30 March.
