Palestinians attend the opening ceremony of the Red Carpet Festival in Gaza City, Dec. 4, 2019. The Red Carpet is a festival for narrative and documentary films. (Photo by Yasser Qudih/Xinhua)

For 5 years in a row, Red Carpet Film Festival in Gaza has been screening movies about Gaza people's suffering, and calling for end to Israeli blockade and internal Palestinian division.

by Saud Abu Ramadan

GAZA, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Outside one of Gaza city's old cinema buildings, deserted for over three decades, a 100-meter-long red carpet marked the kick-off of Red Carpet Film Festival on Wednesday.

A huge white cinema screen was installed on the road, while billboards of the festival's logo were hanged on the Aamer Cinema's old walls and its closed gates.

Montasser al-Sabea, the technical director of the festival, told reporters that the Red Carpet Film Festival has been held for the fifth consecutive year, and around 45 films will be screened in different places all over the Gaza Strip until Dec. 11.

"Some 40 percent of the films were produced in Europe and another 40 percent were produced in Arab countries like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt. For the first time, five films, which were nominated this year, were produced in Palestine," he said, adding all the participating films in the festival are "human rights films."

Hundreds of men, women and children walked on the red carpet, laid on the floor outside the cinema, also attended by several notables from Gaza and rights activists.

The festival's organizers said that this year's slogan of the festival is "I'm Human," adding that the Palestinians send a message to the world that there are in the Gaza Strip more than 2 million humans who have been living under an Israeli blockade for 13 years.

"The film screened during the opening ceremony on the large screen is called 'Gaza' and it is directed by an Irish producer," said Abed Hussein, the executive director of the festival. "The film talks about the populations' suffering over the past 13 years."

Before 1987, when the first Palestinian Intifada broke out, there were 11 cinema theaters in the Gaza Strip, which has been ruled by Islamic Hamas movement since 2007. However, all cinema theaters have closed down due to the violent conflict with Israel.

Human Rights groups in the coastal enclave said that more than 70 percent of the local people have never been to a cinema theater in Gaza and over 60 percent have never taken a plane or left the strip due to the blockade.

Hussein added the first such festival was held in eastern Gaza in 2015, and its message was to tell the world that Gaza people love life and in spite of the mass destruction caused by the wars, "they can find a space to enjoy films."

"Our message this year is to tell the world that Gaza people want to end the blockade and end more than 10 years of internal Palestinian division," said Hussein. "The festival aims at showing the world another beautiful face of Gaza."

Maysa'a Abdullah, a 45-year-old Palestinian woman from Gaza, who came with her two daughters to watch the festival's opening film, said she came to the festival because she wanted to join this annual event.

"This event ... helps people get out of the horrible and miserable situation that we are passing through," she said.

Saed Sweirki, member of the festival's preparatory committee, said the festival team decided to hold the festival for those "who were forgotten by our leaders."

"It is the right of the Gaza people to breathe, to feel free and to see an end to the current internal Palestinian division that damaged all aspects of life," Sweirki added. ■