In The Phoenix of Gaza, filmmaker and journalist Yousef Alhelou presents an intimate, deeply personal documentary that captures the vibrant, everyday life of Gaza before its near-total annihilation. The film is a love letter to a homeland on the brink of devastation, a poignant record of what once was; a Gaza teeming with resilience, joy and humanity.
After a decade away, Yousef returned to Gaza in 2023 with a single mission: to document the city and its people beyond the headlines of war and siege. “Originally, I was planning to film those places to show my followers a Gaza they had never seen before,” Yousef explains. “Gaza has always been off-limits to non-Palestinians. Only Palestinians from Gaza are allowed to return, while international staff are banned from visiting. It’s very, very difficult to obtain permission from the Israelis or the Egyptian authorities to enter.”
Through his lens we see ordinary Gazans doing what ordinary people do – children laughing as they splash in the Mediterranean, families picnicking on the beach, football games played on astroturf under the golden sun, bustling souks filled with traders and shoppers. The gold market, part of the historic Souq Al-Qaysariyya, stands in all its ancient splendor, while the Omari Mosque, one of Gaza’s oldest and most revered landmarks, still watches over the city.
“At first, I wasn’t thinking about producing a documentary for international festivals,” Yousef recalls. “I planned a simple documentary in Arabic for my YouTube channel. But then the genocidal war started, and I lost members of my family, my sister, my nephews and nieces and cousins. Our house was destroyed. That changed everything. I realised I had to write a proper script in English, invest in editing, colour grading, sound effects and music. The idea evolved because I had literal treasure in my hands – footage that no one will ever be able to shoot again. It has become part of history.”
The footage, breathtaking in its simplicity and warmth, reveals a side of Gaza so rarely shown to the world as Yousef takes us through Gaza’s museums and mosques, its churches and restaurants, its olive groves and seaside cafes. A city alive with culture, faith and community. A people who, despite decades of occupation, blockade and hardship, continue to celebrate life in its fullest expression.
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Then, the war begins. October 2023 marks the last days of the Gaza Yousef captured on film. What was meant to be a documentary about life turns into an eulogy for a city and its people. On 4 July, an Israeli attack reduced the gold market and the Omari Mosque to rubble. By 10 December, Yousef’s sister and her seven children were killed in an Israeli air strike. Their bodies remain buried beneath the wreckage of their home. “We did not have a chance to give them an honourable burial,” Yousef says. “They are still under the rubble to this day. Their bodies have decayed.”
Among those lost was his niece, Mariam, a young 14-year-old girl who appears in the documentary wearing a yellow dress, flashing a shy but beautiful smile while playing with her cousins. “She was also shy and always smiled,” Yousef recalls. “Now, she is gone. My sister and her seven children were all killed.”
By January 2025, nearly 50,000 Palestinians were killed by Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, among them journalists, doctors, poets and artists — an entire generation silenced.
Yousef’s extensive archive, compiled during his two-month stay, becomes one of the last visual records of Gaza’s cultural and social life before its systematic destruction. More than just a documentary, The Phoenix of Gaza is an unintentional time capsule — a film that, in its very making, resists erasure.
Augmented by reflective interviews with Yousef himself and guest commentators, the documentary does not just mourn the loss of Gaza; it bears witness to the resilience of its people. “We managed to build our lives each time Israel waged war on Gaza,” Yousef states.
Gaza is always in a state of rebirth, always rising from the ashes. We refuse to vanish.
Despite the devastation, Yousef remains determined to share Gaza’s story. “I wanted to change the stereotype of Palestinians, that we are extreme or warmongers. I wanted to show the hidden beauty and gems that the world did not see, the rare aerial footage, to take people through historical alleyways, to show the churches, mosques, markets — all now destroyed. But at least, through this film, they will be remembered.”
The Phoenix of Gaza is now being screened worldwide after its premier was held in London last month. “There is so much interest to see this film. We have screenings in Germany, London, South Africa, Peru, Latin America and beyond. I hope that, through this documentary, we can humanise Palestinians because it has taken us over seven decades to prove to the world that we are human beings.”
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