Chinese director sheds light on suffering of refugees

Chinese film director and activist, Ai Weiwei began his work in Palestine by interviewing Palestinian refugees in Gaza. He has now developed this into a documentary he intends on showing next year in an effort to highlight the suffering of the refugees.

The world-renowned director has received the coverage of international and local media outlets in Gaza due to his status and popularity, as well as the reason he came to Gaza.

Gaza is the director’s last stop after visiting 10 other cities across the world in order to do interviews with hundreds of displaced individuals and refugees.

He went to various refugee camps and researched the living conditions after suffering three wars and a siege that has gone on for 10 years so far. He interviewed many refugees, visited homes demolished in the areas destroyed by Israel’s wars, and saw the suffering of the people.

He focused his cameras on their various aspects of life, how those in camps live, the market activity, and the remains of a demolished home. He also looks at how the people of Gaza cope with the power shortages, the lack of construction materials due to the siege, unemployment, etc.

When the Rafah crossing opened for two days, he went and saw the suffering of the travellers and expressed his utmost sadness for what he saw.

After his comprehensive study of the Gaza Strip, Weiwei expressed two things, first, his great sadness for this area, in which 1.9 million people are living without even their basic needs and second, that he has seen positive energy in the eyes of the youth and has seen their attempts of living life with renewed hope.