Yalla Parkour (2024)
Areeb Zuaiter's astonishing documentary about a resilient parkour troupe in Gaza
The director Areeb Zuaiter narrates the documentary from the States, explaining that since her mother's passing she has lost her connection to her homeland Nablus. She has always felt distant to the homeland having lived in the west most of her life. In an effort to reconnect, she stumbles on a footage of a parkour troupe in Gaza who are mostly teenagers attempting death-defying flips in the devastated Gaza landscape as a means of escape. Early on, there is some incredible footage of the kids hanging out on top of Barquq castle, whilst remarking that this historic landmark could easily rival any western tourist site.The main focus is on Ahmed Matar who has recorded most of this footage over the years and the audience can actually see him growing up in real time throughout the film. The friendship and communication between Areeb and Ahmed (via video call) endures through Ahmed's hardship in the wake of war, strenuous visa applications and the loss of friends. Areeb's main framing device is revisiting her mother's old photographs and trying to piece together her life and recontextualizing her own life in Washington D.C. - while this works for the most part, the main intrigue by far is Ahmed and his group of fearless friends who are trying to find some semblance of joy in an impossible situation.
Some of the footage is unwatchable and heart-in-your-mouth stuff, as they scale up a very tall building and do backward flips on the edge of a rooftop, in local cemeteries and on sandy structures; you do feel like a parent, wanting to tell them off. The goal is to go viral and get an opportunity to leave the country by participating in parkour events abroad, thus ensuring their safety. One of the more heartbreaking scenes is Ahmed's trip to the embassy as he tries to get a Schengen visa. There is so much life in this group of friends and you really get an understanding of what drives them to do these extreme acts of defiance, that at times end in tragedy. Areeb's story is more of what we're used to from documentaries and fictional works highlighting the immigrant experience, but her personal touches and the fact that Ahmed also gets to be in her shoes away from his family later in the film makes the format work. This documentary is almost a decade in the making and required a great deal of patience, and the final result is such a heartbreaking celebration of life; it is important to note that the film was completed before October 7, 2023. The film won the grand jury prize at the DOC NYC 2024, the largest documentary film festival in the United States.