GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — It was not Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt nor Angelina Jolie who walked down the red carpet at the Karama Human Rights Film Festival, but Fatima al-Jaabari and children Ahmed al-Rai, Mohammed Abu Shamali and Salsabel Abu Shanab, as well as hundreds of other stars from the Gaza Strip, specifically the Shajaiyah neighborhood.

In his interview with Al-Monitor, the festival's director, movie director Khalil al-Muzayen, said he'd insisted that the opening be held in the Shajaiyah neighborhood, which was destroyed in the recent war on the Gaza Strip that raged from July 8 to Aug. 26, 2014.

Muzayen spread out the 60-meter (197-feet) red carpet between the rubble of destroyed houses, which formed part of the backdrop to the festival. He did not set up a giant stage or place a golden ribbon to be cut; he simply spread out the red carpet as a sign of the three-day festival's opening on May 12.

As the red carpet unrolled, patriotic songs played and dozens of children gathered. The festival opened among the ruins in al-Kurba, the most afflicted area of the Shajaiyah neighborhood, near al-Tawfeeq mosque.