Eleven Days in May is a documentary that charts the eleven days in May 2021 when Israel once again waged war on Gaza, killing civilians, including sixty seven children, and injuring many more. Here we are presented with the actual stories of fifty four of the innocent children killed in what were clearly war crimes.
The documentary has been made by Mohammed Sawwaf and Michael Winterbottom. Mohammed Sawwaf is a Gaza based journalist and film-maker and founder of Alef Media Company which produced the documentary. Michael Winterbottom is a British filmmaker whose work has not generally received the attention or praise it deserves. His earlier films include The Road to Guantanamo (2005) and In This World (2002) about Afghan refugees. He is also part of the production company Revolution Films which is distributing this title.
The documentary was filmed by Mohammed Sawwaf together with cinematographer Salah Alhaw and a small production team. They then sent about one hundred hours of footage to Michael Winterbottom in London who edited this, together with Otto Hill-Fletcher, into an 85 minute movie. A narration to the documentary was added and voiced by Kate Winslet.
” … the audience witnesses mere moments of lifetime pains.
Siblings, some so young that they will soon lose vivid memories of their killed brothers or sisters, shuffle nervously as they speak about their bereavement. Mothers and fathers put on brave faces in front of their surviving children, but break into tears when filmed alone. Keepsakes are carefully laid out in front of the camera – a Star Wars hoodie, a school certificate, the kind of necklace that costs a pittance but means the world to a little girl.
And we see mobile phone photos and videos, complete with cartoon-like Snapchat filters, showing the children full of life and happy before images of them which attest to the grimmest realities of war – small bodies, bloodied, and torn into pieces.”
Wikipedia has a brief page on the title which includes links to some reviewers. Apart from praise these tend to point up the bleakness of the stories. However, the participants, family members, neighbours and friends, generally speak with restraint and dignity; though their grief does break forth.
I could not find information regarding the international distribution. In Britain the British Board of Film Classification inflicted an 18 certificate on the documentary. The justification for this was that it included ‘real dead bodies and blood’. The BBFC has always involved political censorship; these days it is wrapped up in euphemisms. The certificate would have greater justification if mainstream titles full of blood, bodies and gore did not generally get lower certificates. A recent example would be Lady Macbeth (2016) which I have viewed at the cinema and on terrestrial television. It received a 15 certificate, despite dead bodies, human and animal: blood and gore: and to boot fairly explicit sex. The bodies may be dummies but they look real enough.
In Britain Revolution Films seem to have distributed the title through the Picture House network. However, I could not find any information online or at Picture House. It looks likely that there were some screenings in 2022 in London. The documentary was also screened as part of the 2022 Bristol Palestine Film Festival. The Leeds Palestine Film Festival is later in 2023; hopefully the title will screen in that programme.
There is a shortened version screening on the Al Jazeera English Language station; I assume the title is also screening on other Al Jazeera channels. Unfortunately the 85 minutes running time has been reduced to 47 minutes; a cut of over half-an-hour. This is one of the failings of television and streaming where titles are often cut to fit into the schedules. It may be that the BBFC certification has had an impact here. This version is also available on the Al Jazeera English-language web pages; one advantage here is that the strap line of news is missing. This version has been effectively edited but I did feel that some of the later stories were shorter than the earlier ones and there was a sense near the end of winding up the documentary. Nether less it remains a compelling if distressing presentation; all the more so in a week when the Israeli military are once again waging war on Gaza and its people. And there is also an interview with both Mohammed Sawwaf and Michael Winterbottom on the Al Jazeera web pages.
Predictably the Zionist fellow travellers have tried to rubbish the documentary and its authors. The Jewish Chronicle had false claims regarding Mohammed Sawwaf’s affiliations. Michael Winterbottom has joined the ranks of those supposedly afflicted with ‘antisemitism’; according to the Israeli Ambassador this now includes The General Assembly of the United Nations. A post of this title on another blog also generated the similar accusation. There is an oddly evidenced claim on the online Jewish News that Kate Winslett was ‘misled’ into voicing the narration.
It is worth looking at some of the other documentaries and programmes also on the Al Jazeera web pages. There are several presenting the voices of Palestinians in their Documentaries and in The Witness series. This includes Al_Nakba which has been commemorated over the last week.
Talking Pictures 