Life Is Beautiful / الحياة حلوة

Mohamed Jabaly

2023 / 96 minutes
Norway, Qatar, Palestine
Arabic, English, Norwegian with English subtitles

Jean Rouch Award — Honorable Mention

In the form of a film letter, Life is Beautiful, by Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly (Ambulance, Gaza Online), meditates on correspondence and the use of film to secure participation in global discussions about family and intimacy in Palestine. Life is Beautiful also comments on the practices of documenting one's life, the passage of time, and the contradictions of living in a country that has trouble recognizing an immigrant’s status of belonging through legal means.

Stuck in the arctic of Norway and refusing to accept the boundaries imposed by international politics and rigid bureaucracy, Jabaly insists on telling heartfelt stories from his hometown Gaza. Despite having only limited connection to his family abroad and support from his friends, he manages to channel his own creativity, adhering to his motto, "Life is Beautiful." Friends back home tell Jabaly to seek asylum but having grown up in the coastal city of Gaza, he refuses to give up his Palestinian identity. In Norway, he is now considered stateless, and his application for an artist’s visa is rejected as he does not meet the qualification criteria as a self-taught filmmaker.