Yalla Parkour – Films – Visions du Réel

Areeb Zuaiter
Sweden, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia | 2024 | 89 min
Swiss Premiere
Languages : Arabic, Swedish
Subtitles : English, French

In her relentless quest for a memory that might reinforce her sense of belonging, filmmaker Areeb crosses paths with Ahmad, a parkour athlete from Gaza. A journey is sparked, across their shared homeland and from one to the other, as conflicting aspirations intersect, nostalgia meets with ambition, and the weight of the past encounters an unpredictable future.

In the urban landscape of Gaza City, a troupe of young acrobats leap from rooftop to rooftop, executing daring, gravity-defying moves. In the distance, the sky darkens under the thunder of ongoing bombardment… A scene of almost ordinary life in an occupied territory. This video, stumbled upon online, awakens a long-buried memory in filmmaker Areeb Zuaiter — one nearly lost to time. She is four years old, seeing the sea for the very first time. Beside her, her mother, having returned to her homeland of Palestine, is smiling like never before.
Areeb feels a deep urge to reconnect with her roots. She reaches out to the parkour team and soon forms a friendship with Ahmad Matar, one of the traceurs. Through him, and across the digital divide, she rediscovers what remains of Gaza: a cemetery, a crumbling shopping mall, the skeletal ruins of an airport. As Areeb reconnects with the city, Ahmad dreams of escape from the enclosure imposed by Israel. For him, parkour becomes a lifeline, a possible route to a freer life elsewhere. A deeply moving film about memory, belonging, and the search for self.
Katy Léna Ndiaye

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