Between Reality and Documentary

BETWEEN REALITY AND DOCUMENTARY: A HISTORICAL PRESENTATION OF GAZA REFUGEES IN COLONIAL HUMANITARIAN AND PALESTINIAN DOCUMENTARY FILM, by Shahd Abusalama . London, I .B . Tauris, 2025, 256pp. ISBN: 978-0755653102.

Reviewed by: Anis Ahmad, Riphah International University, Pakistan 

In the age of digital media, the use of cinema has become limited, yet cinema halls are packed with viewers in nearly every major shopping mall. This absorbing book provides an eyewitness account as well as academic evidence of filmmaking, particularly documentary films, on a current, important global issue, the pre- and post-October 7, 2023 horrifying episode of the ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing, brutality, blatant violence of human rights and mass killing of over 80,000 children, women, medical doctors, nurses, innocent civilians, and over 128 journalists in Gaza and Palestine.

In the modern history of mankind, Gaza represents the worst possible situation whereby constant subjugation to curfews, siege and ghettoization, since the Nakba of 1948, has made it impossible for the Palestinians to have a dignified life. The book under review offers a critical understanding of the historical background behind the Euro-American and Israeli coalition, ideological war and ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinians. It is a highly documented research work based on the author’s PhD thesis.