Khalil Al-Mozayen
Filmmaker and screenwriter
On Trace of The Tide, he says: “He walked upon the water, quietly and lightly, as though Trace of The Tide knew him, as though the waves were laying out a path before him, just as the feet of prophets had walked before him—light upon the world, yet heavy with meaning. The sea was waiting for him, grey as though it had not slept since the first war. His heart kept extending its thread towards that place, where the sea swallows Gaza every evening, only to return it as an echo.
A Palestinian filmmaker and screenwriter, born in Rafah in 1963. He studied film directing at the Academy of Culture in Saint Petersburg before returning to the Gaza Strip, where he worked in directing, production, and film training, contributing to the development of a new generation of young filmmakers. He has directed numerous fiction and documentary films, including Gaza–Sderot: Life in Spite of Everything, Masho Matouk, Gaza 36 mm, The Scarecrow, and Sara. His work explores memory, loss, displacement, and the social and human realities of Gaza, resisting its reduction to war alone. He founded and directed the Red Carpet Human Rights Film Festival, bringing cinema screenings into neighbourhoods, refugee camps, and onto the seashore, and affirming the right of Gaza’s people to culture and life. The Al Jazeera Documentary Film Festival opened with his short film Monologues from Gaza, which received the Al Jazeera Freedom and Human Rights Award.