GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — "Ten Years," the first feature film produced by a local production company in the Gaza Strip, is expected to breathe new life into the dormant cinema industry in Gaza.
The film, which is about the life and challenges of a family between 1999 and 2009, depicts social issues such as unemployment, corruption and women’s rights. The film crew worked on the feature film for 10 months, between October 2016 and July 2017. In cooperation with the Gaza Ministry of Culture, movie theaters that have been closed since 1987 are set to reopen, with the first screenings scheduled for early September, during Eid al-Adha.
Alaa al-Aloul, a film producer and director at Continue Production Films, which produced "Ten Years," told Al-Monitor that the company received no external funding. The Gaza company used its own financial means to produce the film that cost more than $100,000. "Very few nondocumentary films are made by private media production companies in Gaza because businessmen do not invest their money in films,” he said.
He added, “This is the longest feature film made in the Gaza Strip, as its duration exceeds 2½ hours. None of the films produced in Gaza have exceeded 2½ hours in the last few years," noting that the recent films, mostly documentaries or historical films, were around 1½ hours.
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