The Cinematheque

“A tremendously moving portrait of resistance under siege … A rallying cry, not only for empathy but also for collective action.”

Isaac Feldberg, RogerEbert.com

Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk offers an intimate portrait of daily life in Gaza through video calls between Sepideh Farsi, an exiled Iranian filmmaker based in Paris, and Fatma Hassona, a young Palestinian photojournalist. Beyond images of a city under siege, the film reveals ordinary conversations, humour, fear, and moments of connection, creating a remarkably direct record of life, hope, and resistance during war. The day after the film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, Fatma Hassona was killed, along with her family, in an Israeli airstrike. What remains with the viewer is Fatma’s ever-smiling, perhaps hopeful face, which lingers amid the anxiety and disturbing images she shares with Farsi. With war now extending across the region, the film also invites reflection on how fragile ordinary civilian lives remain across this part of the world, suspended between fleeting stability and sudden catastrophe.

In English and Arabic with English subtitles

Post-screening audience discussion moderated by Pelan.

“What’s quietly miraculous about Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, considering its added tragic weight, is what the force of Hassona’s personality and Farsi’s filmmaking choices still manage to do: speak to what’s ineffably beautiful about our human capacity for hope and connection.”

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

“Endearing and heartbreaking in equal measure … The film proves stirring in its capacity for hope against all odds, while also placing on full display the cost of occupation, portraying the full extent of the lives and dreams dashed by war.”

Siddhant Adlakha, Variety