Palestinian Film 'Thirteen In Gaza' Wins NETPAC At TIFF — SkimNews
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- Hosam Abu Dan's film "Thirteen in Gaza" won the NETPAC Award at TIFF over the weekend, after world premiering in the festival's Centrepiece sidebar.
- The film was shot entirely in Gaza with a local Palestinian cast and crew under wartime conditions, making it the first feature-length local production to emerge from Gaza since the Israeli military campaign began after the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, which the source says has killed close to 74,000 people and injured more than 173,000.
- Mary Ziyara stars as 13-year-old Ragha, who lost her home and most of her family in a missile attack, opposite Firas Al-Masri as her father; the pair navigate life in a crowded displacement camp.
- Abu Dan was unable to travel to Toronto for the premiere; the festival left his allocated front-row seats empty while he addressed the audience via a pre-recorded video message filmed against a pile of rubble.
- On the fourth day of shooting, a nearby strike seriously injured one of Abu Dan's colleagues — an incident he cited when calling the film one "made with blood."
- The production was supported by the Doha Film Institute and the Arab Culture Fund, with Mad World handling international sales.
Why it matters: A Palestinian-made feature film completed inside an active war zone and then recognized by a major festival jury gives Gaza-based storytellers a distribution pathway through Mad World that on-the-ground journalism alone cannot provide — and Abu Dan's own framing ("made with blood") underscores the physical cost of producing it.
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