The feature-length documentary A State of Passion (2024) co-directed by Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi takes us deeper into the unfolding war on Gaza through the eyes of Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah. For almost two years, the extraordinary violence in Gaza has been broadcast live on our screens, even as those who strive to document it are being assassinated right in front of our eyes. Yet, the witnessing, documenting, archiving and narrating of the genocide of Palestinians continues, more and more from unlikely sources. Some of the most rigorous accounts of what is happening on the ground are coming from doctors and healthcare workers, many of whom have paid a harrowning price for speaking out. 

Documentary filmmakers Carol and Muna found themselves wrought with distress as they watched the bombardment of Gaza in October 2023, and realized that it was unprecedented in its volume and genocidal goal. When they heard that their old friend Dr. Abu-Sittah was getting on a plane to Gaza, they asked if they could start documenting his trip through images, Whatsapp texts and voice messages. They asked him to stay in touch in whatever way he could. 

Trained as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Abu-Sittah has been moonlighting as a trauma surgeon for several years, and has made trips to Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan and Iraq and his native Palestine over the last two decades. But his sixth trip to Gaza was different and Dr. Abu-Sittah saw firsthand the start of Israel’s war on hospitals. These hospital bombardments and the media’s gaslighting narratives about it altered something in Dr. Abu-Sittah himself. He began the work of witnessing and narrating in earnest, sending urgent missives about what was happening on the ground through social media. Eventually, he decided that his medical expertise was not as helpful with hospital infrastructure destroyed and no medical supplies being allowed in. After 43 days, he returned to London and decided it was time to pick up the microphone and take a public stance about what he witnessed. “I cannot unsee what I saw,” he told Carol and Muna. 

A State of Passion, however, is not the story of one man but the story of Gaza, the filmmakers insist. We get loving glimpses into the doctor’s family, his eloquent and fiercely revolutionary wife Deema, who is from Gaza, and his two young boys who are proud both of their father, and to be Palestinian.

In the Radical Futures interview, the filmmakers speak about how the documentary evolved, the tough decisions about structures, timelines, and tone as well as the deteriorating situation in Gaza where the healthcare community and hospital infrastructure is being deliberately targeted. 

Further reading:

Trailer for A State of Passion:https://vimeo.com/1029273602

Arrange a screening at your institution: https://state-of-passion.com/screenings

Review by Ruwon Teodros: https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1657141

The Situated Testimony of Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah (Forensic Architecture) https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/when-it-stopped-being-a-war 

Hosted by Bhakti Shringarpure

Produced by Radical Books Collective and the Polis Project.