PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK

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PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK, directed by Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, is a profoundly personal portrait of life under siege in Gaza, told through a year-long exchange of WhatsApp video calls and messages with 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona. Beginning in April 2024, their conversations move between moments of warmth and devastation—Fatma recounts the killings of friends and family members, dreams of traveling beyond Gaza’s borders, and shares her love for films like THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own.” Her voice, candid and resolute, reveals both the ordinary desires and extraordinary resilience of a young woman navigating unimaginable circumstances. 

On April 16, 2025—just one day after the film’s selection for Cannes’ ACID sidebar was announced—Fatma and most of her family were killed by the Israeli Defence Forces. Her mother survived. The film stands as both testimony and tribute to a life cut short.