THE FLYING BOYS OF GAZA
For a group of boys in the Gaza Strip, parcour is a means of rebelling and defying the constraints and restrictions that have been imposed on their lives. An obstacle course of a very particular kind!
As light as feathers, they leap over bullet-ridden walls, balance on bombed roofs, perform somersaults and pirouettes in the air, skip from wall to wall, sprint all the way to the beach and across the desert dunes. They are the flying boys of the Gaza Strip who practice acrobatics and free running to break free from the confines of their narrow everyday lives. Their passion is “parcour”: the art of overcoming the limits of the human body and the environment. A constant supply of new obstacles spurs them on to ever more daring stunts. But, of course, in the Gaza Strip, parcour is also an attempt to reclaim occupied territory, an area where the strict guardians of public morals prohibit modern art, dance and Western music. Parcour is also eyed suspiciously by fundamentalist Muslims and considered to be a decadent Western trend. The film follows the “Gaza Parcour” group of youths, showing them in their everyday lives in the poor, traditional southern part of the Gaza Strip. The boys talk about their feelings, doubts, tensions and conflicts with tradition, but also about their dreams for the future, their ambitions and what makes them happy.