Driftlines Film Festival: Closing Film The Seven Waves (2024)

​About this event

​Screening and discussion with director Asma Bseiso. 

​About the film

​The Seven Waves offers a lyrical portrait of Palestinian people’s relationships with the sea, and the complex layers of governance that shape these relations. Director Asma Bseiso shares the stories of Bisan, a young water sports athlete, and her cousin Muhammad, a fisherman and lifeguard working along the Gaza coast. The film follows Bisan’s training and advocacy as one of the few women competing in water sports, situating women’s access to the sea within the broader landscape of Palestinian freedom. Muhammad’s narrative introduces themes of labor and food sovereignty as he works in the sea amid heightened policing from Israeli boats and limited access to the resources needed to fish. As the last film made before the genocide began in 2023, The Seven Waves juxtaposes the daily struggles of coastal life under occupation with the beauty of the Gaza Sea as a spiritual and cultural home for Palestinian lives.