Eleven Days in May review – heart-wrenching documentary on the grimness of life in Gaza
The horror and misery of the Gaza conflict, and the 11-day bombing campaign by Israel in 2021, is reflected upon in this grim documentary codirected by the Palestinian film-maker Mohammed Sawwaf and Britain’s Michael Winterbottom. The assault was triggered by Israeli security forces services taking up positions on Temple Mount and in the Palestinian Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem; Hamas fired rockets when they did not withdraw, and Israel responded with overwhelming military force. During the bombardment more than 250 Palestinians were killed, including more than 60 Palestinian children (with an estimated 13 people on the Israeli side, said its officials, including two children).
This film sets out to memorialise the Palestinian children who were killed There are heart-wrenching interviews with the families, with translations narrated by Kate Winslet, and surviving family members are asked to pose for a sombre “portrait” tableaux, from which some adults break away, their faces in their hands, unable to control their tears. There are also unbearably grim mortuary shots of the children’s dead bodies, which have earned this film its 18 certificate.
The documentary sticks to its brief: there is no geopolitical contextualising, and it does not, for example, talk about Hamas anger at what it sees as the west’s hypocrisy in supporting Ukrainians but not Palestinians – but neither does the film consider Hamas’s notable reluctance to criticise Putin’s invasion. Perhaps all this came too late to be included. What it does is go from family to family, telling very similar stories. The effect is repetitive, relentless – much like the events themselves. It is a very bleak picture, something to be compared, perhaps, with Garry Keane and Andrew McConnell’s film Gaza about life under siege.
• Eleven Days in May is released on 6 May in cinemas.