Still from Final Hour Log – Handala
Final Hour Log – Handala
LOOPING screening | 17mins | free, drop-inWitness the last hour of the humanitarian vessel Handala, before interception by Israel in international waters on July 26, 2025.
Final Hour Log – Handala reconstructs the last hour of the humanitarian vessel Handala, launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and named after the iconic figure created by Palestinian artist Naji al-Ali in the late 1960s. Handala, a barefoot refugee child with his back turned to the viewer, symbolizes Palestinian resistance, exile, and the right of return. Naji al-Ali was assassinated by Israel in 1987.
The vessel was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters on July 26, 2025. It was sailing to break Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza, imposed since 2007 and escalated into a declared “complete siege” on October 9, 2023, through the deliberate cutting of essential supplies, amounting to an engineered campaign of famine and starvation. The crew faced surveillance, electronic jamming, intimidation, forcible boarding, and abduction.
Composed primarily of livestreamed footage, the film documents a civilian act of solidarity and defiance, preserving what was meant to be erased. An act of witness and rupture against the enforced silence, an act to break the siege on Gaza.
director: Firas Shehadeh
year of release: 2025
Length: 18 mins
place of production: scotland
Original Language: english subtitlesThis event is part of Falastin Film Festival in Dundee and North East Fife from 24-27 September. Celebrate Palestinian cinema and culture in a programme of films, talks, workshops and performance co-curated by Art Workers for Palestine Dundee. Gather to mobilise against Zionist colonisation while learning from Palestinian resistance, cultural pride, stories of love, and, in the words of poet Rafeef Ziadah, teachings of life.