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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Philip Oltermann in Cannes

‘To escape Gaza is already an achievement. And then to be trans?’: the women defying national and gender boundaries

Not meant to be ‘a demonstration of anything’ … still from The Belle from Gaza.
Not meant to be ‘a demonstration of anything’ … a still from The Belle from Gaza. Photograph: Unite/Phobics/Arte France Cinema

The Belle from Gaza premieres at the Cannes film festival on Friday – an achievement made the more remarkable as there was a point last year when it looked as if it would never be seen.

After Hamas’s attack on 7 October and the Israeli military offensive that followed, its French director, Yolande Zauberman, considered shelving her finished project. “I thought maybe we should not show this movie for the moment, because what’s happening is so big, so huge”, says Zauberman.

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