Areeb Zuaiter: Yalla Parkour
“Turning pain into happiness” is a key sentence in the film that deals with a Gaza, before it was totally destroyed after October 7 2023 and the consequent events.
The pain of the director Areeb, Palestinian living in the US, remembering the smile of her mother, when she was walking with her in Gaza, at the sea. They lived in Nablus, the mother passed away, the father is in Amman.
And the pain of the young members of the Parkour team, who dreams of getting out of Gaza – there is no future for us, as one of them says. Becoming a professional parkour player is a way to get a visa and leave.
Areeb finds Ahmed via the internet and the whole film is a visual conversation between the two. They get closer and closer to each other and Areeb gets to watch the videos that Ahmed has shot for years; one is more – for this viewer – nerve wracking than the next one! Hard to watch in one way, an artistic performance for sure but also bearing the risk of tough consequences as when one of the parkourists, Jinji, falls from fourth floor.
The film starts with Areeb and her memories. Beautiful shots from where she lives in the US, a snowy landscape – later on Ahmed expresses “oh, I have never seen snow, would love to”. In Gaza where he performs it is sand all over. A very staged beginning, compositions and a glass wall, where Areeb draws lines as waves in the sea. From there the film – via the videos shot by Ahmed – moves to more documentary footage of the kids performing. Ahmed has been filming for years and friends of him have been filming him, when he is jumping. There are also footage from the Palestinian camps. A good choice to have this contrast in narrative style between the Palestinian “outside” and the Palestinian “inside”. Even if it irritated me a bit, also later in the film, that Areeb primarily is seen behind glass… I loved when I see her beautiful smiling face as a response to Ahmed telling her that “I have a girl friend”. Can I see her, she asks, “nope”, he says laughing.
At this point Parkour has brought him out of the country. To Sweden where he has a job as trainer for kids, that’s what I understood. For years he applied for a visa, he got one to leave Gaza, and in Sweden he applies for citizenship, and gets it after 7 years. Which enables him to return to Gaza to meet his family. In one of the most emotional scenes he says this to his mother, she cries – and so did I!
Ahmed is sooo good for the film. Charming, natural in front of the Camera, (trying to) turning pain into happiness. And as a parkourist quite close to losing his mobility as he shows Areeb some videos, where his jumping made him end on his head…
Of course you can´t help – when watching the film – think about Gaza today BUT as a well composed sometimes painful, sometimes joyful I enjoyed the film that also catches the Palestinian soul and I hope for the best for Ahmed and his parkourist teammates and his family, where ever they are.
