The people of Gaza learnt to dress their wounds with hope long before October 7. After every bombardment, when the dust has settled, they greet each other in the streets with affirmations of a better future – of peace, of reconstruction, of freedom. For many, the only way to persevere is to look upon rubble and see an image of what it will look like when their home is restored to its former glory.
And perhaps the brightest smile in Gaza belongs to Alaa Meqdad. He's a disabled dwarf and father of two, and when he walks the streets to see what food may be available for his family each day, he's greeted by adults and children alike, who look upon him as both a local celebrity and a friend.
That's because Meqdad, better known as Aloosh the Clown, has made it his purpose to bring joy.
Even amid the war, he continues his mission. The Clown of Gaza, the vital debut feature of emerging Palestinian filmmaker and fellow Gaza resident Abdulrahman Sabbah, documents Aloosh the Clown's life during wartime, as he brings laughter to children wherever he finds them, whether along the beach or in a hospital bed.
Perhaps Meqdad is so adept at staying positive even under the weight of immense pain because, long before the war, he was in personal turmoil due to his condition.
“The children beat me, throwing stones at me, insulting me,” Meqdad says in the film of his own childhood. But he pushed on at his parents' behest, until one day his positive attitude brought him love instead of derision.
Since October 7, many stories about Gaza have been released, most of which were filmed or take place before the war began. Once Upon a Time in Gaza, for instance, takes place in the 2000s, while Yalla Parkour ends just before the conflict began.
From Ground Zero, the Oscar-shortlisted collection of 22 short films about Gaza, released last year, and is one of the rare films that shows the Palestinian experience in Gaza amid the war. The Clown of Gaza is a direct outgrowth of that project, the first release of the Ground Zero+ initiative, filmed in 2024 and 2025.
There is, as there must be, unimaginable pain and devastation on display in The Clown of Gaza. In between scenes of Meqdad triumphantly bringing his family fresh tomatoes and searching for brightly coloured fabrics from which he can make clothing suitable for a clown, he recounts moments of the war.
Meqdad remembers, at one point, as people fled the strikes in the north of Gaza, walking alongside a man pushing his mother in a wheelchair. Snipers killed the man. All Meqdad could think was, who will push the mother? As he looked around, he realised no one could take the chance – because they likely would be shot by the same sniper if they did.
"So I kept walking," Meqdad says. "I just kept walking."
The worst days, he says, often come right after his most successful performances.
“The hardest thing is to play with a child who then dies the following day. You see the joy in the parents' eyes as the next day they tell you that she loved you very much – that she was happy with you,” Meqdad says.
Sometimes, in an act of remembrance, parents announce the death by sharing a photo of the last time their child was happy. Sometimes, those photos are of them next to their favourite clown.
All Meqdad can do, he says, is carry on, and be there for the children who remain. Because even in the darkest moments, someone has to show them how to keep smiling.
The Clown of Gaza premiered this week at the Amman International Film Festival
