GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Eighty-year-old Umm Bushra hangs the bread on a clothesline and waits for it to dry. She then sells it to whoever owns chickens, and then she spends the little income — about 5 shekels ($1.29) a day — she gets from it on herself as she lives alone without a husband or son. This all plays out in a scene from a documentary film produced by a young Gazan.

Umm Bushra’s life was the theme of a documentary film titled “Bread, the Source of Life,” directed by the young Samar Abu Elouf, who participated in the 2013 United Nations Relief and Works Agency's (UNRWA’s) Clothes Line Competition held in Ramallah. The documentary placed fourth.

Abu Elouf, 32, told Al-Monitor that the movie holds a message of hope, as it depicts the insistence of an elderly lady who lives in al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, to work and spend her money on herself. The elderly lady’s hope reflects that of the young director who is seeking a sponsor for her future documentaries. She did not succeed in getting funding to produce her first documentary, relying on friends to complete it instead.

“Directors who won global or Arab awards for their documentaries face many difficulties in traveling to attending their honoring ceremonies or participating in film festivals in which their works are nominated,” she said, adding, “We face many obstacles while producing movies, including the lack of funding, the weak capacities we have and our missed opportunities to travel to the countries where the documentary film festivals take place. This is because of the ongoing closing of the Rafah crossing, while Israel continues to prevent Gazan youth from leaving through the Erez crossing.”