There are two views on Gaza, one that is sentimental and dreamy, and the other is harsher and lived in nature. In the film “Yalla Parkour”, which won DOC NYC’s international award, these two views do not blend harmoniously. A Nablus-born filmmaker based in Washington DC, Areeb Zuaiter directed his first feature film. The documentary was completed before the events of October 7, 2023 but it is worth noting that her prologue and ending credits briefly refer to death and destruction in 2024.
A structure of editing that Zuaiter selects to adopt in the Gaza acts as a means of interweaving Ahmed Matar the Gaza parkour athlete with her mother, memory and identity story. This may appeal to some, but not this writer for it seems to diminish the very dynamic and engaging struggles of the youth of Gaza.
Here, Zuaiter becomes obsessed with incredible internet footage shot in 2013 showing a pack of brave Khan Yunis boys who perform parkour flips on what appears like an even flat sandy rooftops while at other end there is a dark gray cloud from an explosion filling up the sky. She reaches out through internet IM to start an online relationship with Matar, their teenage cameraman and one boy who is rising high into being one parkour athlete. While he shares the group’s incredible videos brimming with youthful exhilaration amidst ruins, Zuiater draws optimism and defiance from such actions.
Although Zuaiter yearns to see the sea that she describes as haunting her childhood memories in her voiceover, most of Matar’s videos are about boys who make destroyed and abandoned buildings their own. They do dangerous, gravity-defying stunts from Barquq Castle’s picturesque ruins to a bombed-out mall, half-built Rafah airport or the local cemetery. With their strength and graceful form, they could be high diving champions or gold medal-winning gymnasts in another country; however, what Zuaiter calls an “open-air prison” of Gaza is where they practice best and feel free. In his mind, Matar thinks that one day these videos will earn him an invitation to compete outside Gaza and bring about genuine liberation.
Not every boy on the parkour squad shares Matar’s luck and sure-footedness. We observe a teammate known as Jinji who climbs up the tall building with its honeycomb surface but descends before he reaches the roof. When Jinji came back from hospital bed after breaking over 50 bones, it was considered a very serious case which needed treatment in Israel due to its severity; though it took them more than a week just to get out of Gaza.
Jinji’s case proves that life in Gaza requires a saint-like patience, as Zuaiter demonstrates. Matar has been rejected four times when he tries to apply for a visa, which is both expensive and labyrinthine. He finally gets one only for it to expire before he can receive permission to leave through Rafah crossing. Zuaiter questions: why does he want to go? “Gaza is hopeless,” comes the answer.
The film further makes some uncomfortable editing choices when it jumps from 2016 to 2023 around the hour mark. Eventually, Matar has made his way out of Gaza and has been staying in Malmö, Sweden for seven years. His patience remains necessary still, at twenty-four years old. He cannot go back home until he becomes a citizen of this European country. Meanwhile, as he awaits for the precious new passport; he works at a gym as a trainer for children; also he calls with them on skype. But Zuaiter’s information about his change of life feels rushed after we have followed Matar from the beginning.
This is why Zuaiter had to bring cameramen inside Gaza because she could not go there herself. They eventually managed to get some water scenes shot, which was what she wanted all along. The footage of the boys parkouring through parks is high energy and gritty in contrast to pictures of Zuaiter sitting on her computer or drawing or looking at family photos. Similarly Gaza’s sandy dull colors contrast with snowy winter and spring blossoming outside her window in D.C (Zuaiter). This multi-layered score by Diab Meraki is beautiful but used sparingly; yet it helps create unity among different components of the movie respectively
The end credits note that since the completion of the film, three members of the camera crew, one sound recordist and one member of the Gaza parkour team have died, and pays tribute to them by name.
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