The world seems short of ideas on an alternative future for Gaza. Israel, with American support, seems so obsessed with killing Palestinians that they haven’t had time to think outside the box, so Ahmed Masoud has come up with a satirical, imagined future in his dramatisation of a short story he wrote in 2018.
Set one month before the opening ceremony of the 2044 Olympics being held in Gaza, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is questioning Lamma, the vice President of Gaza, about the viability of going ahead with the event in the light of a recent massacre that has taken place in the territory. She stands on a bare stage as three voices of the IOC from different parts of the audience question her about the sequence of events that led up to the latest Israeli breach of a supposed ceasefire.
Sara Masry as Lamma gives a measured, emotionally assured performance that opens and closes the show. She takes us back to 2040 when those officially in charge of Gaza learned that a forged application for Gaza to host the 2044 Olympics had been successful, and they are about to question two technicians suspected of the stunt.
Outside the door wait the culprits, Selma and Rayyan, old friends in their mid-twenties, wondering if they are going to get much older. The application to host the 39th Olympics was a joke derived from other countries' applications. They didn’t expect it to be taken seriously. But then they did forge the President’s signature.
Much to everyone’s surprise, he takes to the idea, saying the Israelis have “kept us in boxes, in cages, like chickens. They turn the food on and off whenever they please. Maybe sport will bring change.”
Others are less optimistic. But the President (Zaydun Khalaf) leaves them to sort out the difficulties, such as the facilities they can’t build without Israeli permission and the risk of all the other supposedly independent Palestinian states being nudged by Israel into envious conflict with Gaza.
Our intrepid techs come up with the idea of using tunnels for the sports. After all, if the tunnels outfoxed the Israelis during their regular attacks, then why not put them to Olympic use, and what’s more, they can use the rubble to create an island off Gaza to help with the water sports. They even get some interest from the other Palestinian states.
The light, humorous touch of these early sections changes when Lamma is asked about the background of Selma (Sama Rantish) and Rayyan (Joe Haddad), and she recalls a particularly traumatic moment for the pair aged 11 in 2024 when Israel bombed their Gaza homes, killing their families. They spent several days wounded in an area where Israeli tanks and guns were still killing people. It also forged a friendship that made them feel like brother and sister.
Returning the audience to the IOC investigation meeting, Lamma describes the increasing tension following the IOC’s rejection of “Israel’s request to reverse” the decision “for Gaza to host the 39th Summer Olympics.” By 2044, drones and robots are sent by Israel to arrest key people, including Selma and Rayyan. Unfortunately for Israel, the one sent to capture the two techs malfunctions with some interesting consequences.
When news starts to arrive of a crochety Israel, along with others, planning to invade Gaza, the President decides there should be a Peace March.
A confident cast delivers an entertaining, believable performance that doesn't hide from the horrors of trying to exist in Israel’s open-air prison camp, where Palestinians are constantly targets of Israel’s prison guards, but it also has lots of moments of humour and a message of hope that will surprise many people.