Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk

I saw 'Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk' at MIFF today and it floored me. This is one of the most heartbreaking and essential documentaries I've ever experienced - a devastating yet luminous portrait of Fatima Hassouna, a young Gazan photojournalist who filmed, documented, and lived with extraordinary courage right up until her life was so cruelly cut short. The film is a heartbreaking tribute to the human spirit, and Fatima will live in my heart long after the credits rolled.

But I have to be honest: I'm deeply unsettled by the director's voice within the film. The contrast is jarring. Where Fatima radiates warmth, wit, and humanity, the director comes across as tone-deaf at best, heartless at worst. Some of her commentary is shockingly tone-deaf - casually asking if Fatima's daily reality might feel "like Covid", or laughing about whether she could come to Cannes, as if such frivolities weren't a world away from what this young woman was living through. It felt heartless, almost inhuman, and such a stark contrast to the gorgeous young soul we lost far too soon.

And yet, despite this dissonance, Fatima's presence eclipses everything. Her laughter, her smile, her resilience, her eye for beauty amid unimaginable horror - these are the things that shine through. This is her film, her testimony, her legacy. It's painful, yes, but so important.

Watched at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

What's unique about this documentary is that director Sepideh Farsi presents the ongoing genocide conducted by the Israeli government through the perspective of various video calls and with journalist Fatima Hassouna (whom has tragically being killed), yet it remains intimate, mature, heartbreaking and quite powerful.

Through the lens of the calls, the discussions, interviews, and observations between those who are suffering were powerful and depressing. How Hassouna was able to present her home and sharing stories from others and herself was touching and heartbreaking. Farsi's approach on how the information was handled and the direction presentation was appropriate, to bring the voices out to showcase how war itself, is a real poison and the worst aspects of humanity. The concept about a documentary using phone calls and video calls throughout might not work but how Hassouna uses the technique and the direction really sold on it's premise.

A heartbreaking documentary that shows war is never good. May Fatima Hassouna rest in peace.

It's a film that doesn't simply show war... it feels it, breathes it, and mourns through it. Behind every statistic of it, there is a soul, sometimes carried in one hand, walking toward the light.

The title makes Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water sound poetic.

Simply "For Fatima" !!

A powerful and heartbreaking documentary that, through video calls, offers a much more intimate perspective than the news ever could on the barbarity of the genocide carried out by the Israeli government.

Gratitude goes to Fatima Hassouna (may she rest in peace) for welcoming us into her home, sharing her story with immense strength, and for the photographic documentation she created - and to Sepideh Farsi for bringing to the world the voice of a Palestinian woman who, sadly, did not live to see her dream of a world without war come true.

Screened at the Guanajuato International Film Festival.

I don't know what to say.. she loved her country and her people more than anything, even though she was newly married and had the chance to leave but she felt that her country needed her voice.. she was assassinated with 10 in a targeted bombing by a bunch of disgusting child murdering criminals.. she was 24 of age.

On one of her last posts on social media she wrote: "If I die, I want a loud death, I don't want to be just breaking news, or a number in a group, I want a death that the world will hear, an impact that will remain through time, and a timeless image that cannot be buried by time or place." You'll never be forgotten Fatima and thank you for your courage, you'll be missed.