Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk A Pulse-Pounding Heartbreaking Diary of Gaza’s Unseen Suffering

“Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” offers one of the most intimate, harrowing portraits of contemporary war-related trauma, turning an ordinary FaceTime conversation into a raw visual diary of life inside Gaza.

Directed by Sepideh Farsi, this documentary unfolds almost entirely through video calls with Fatma Hassouna, a young Palestinian photojournalist documenting her own life amid the relentless Israeli bombardment in 2024.

Unlike traditional war documentaries relying on expert voices or multiple perspectives, Farsi’s film centers on Fatma’s singular voice and her expressions gradually revealing the weight of daily survival under siege.

The phone’s patchy connection, with calls dropping and words hanging unfinished, becomes a poignant symbol of the fragmented lives this conflict shatters. Fatma’s storytelling, punctuated by moments of laughter, grief, and raw frustration, strips away the distance viewers often feel toward news reports.

Her accounts include fleeing bombed homes, losing loved ones in strikes, and enduring deprivation, no electricity, no running water, hunger, and the constant overhead threat of helicopters and snipers.

Remarkably, Fatma’s courage and resilience shine through, even as the weight of unending conflict leaves her increasingly exhausted and despondent.

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What elevates the film beyond a simple war chronicle is Fatma’s artistry; her photographic work and poetry weave through the narrative, offering haunting glimpses of Gaza’s contradictory beauty and destruction.

This fusion creates a cinematic experience where the viewer is not just watching violence but feeling its emotional and physical toll. The decision to use single-screen phone calls projected in real time brings a surreal immediacy to the film, turning technology itself into a vessel of connection, despair, and witness.

The Human Cost and Unflinching Reality

The documentary’s power lies largely in its unvarnished portrayal of human suffering. Fatma’s story is not unique in Gaza, yet telling it with such honesty forces viewers to confront the scale and intimacy of civilian suffering in a conflict too often reduced to statistics or political rhetoric.

With scenes capturing the destruction of homes, buildings, and the obliteration of neighborhoods, the film vividly recalls the devastating toll on families, particularly children and the elderly. At one point, Fatma explains losing thirteen friends and family members in a single strike, including an infant.

This becomes more than history or news; it becomes a personal tragedy recorded in fragmented phone calls that grow fewer as the war intensifies and Fatma’s strength wanes. In early calls, Fatma’s hope is palpable despite the horrors, but as months pass, a numbing despair settles in.

Her references to cultural works like “The Shawshank Redemption” articulate this shift from optimism to the recognition that hope can be dangerous in such a brutal environment.

The film also commemorates Fatma herself, who was killed in an airstrike shortly after the film’s premiere, adding a heartbreaking layer of urgency and remembrance.

Critics and festival audiences alike have recognized the film’s impact. It moves beyond mournful storytelling to a direct call to empathy, forcing viewers to reckon with war’s human face. Its style rejects sensationalism for a simple yet stark honesty that resonates deeply.

By framing Fatma’s experience as a continuous video diary, the documentary emphasizes how individual lives are caught in an interminable cycle of violence and loss, making the viewer a witness to both the endurance and fragility of hope in war zones.

Beyond Borders: The Film’s Wider Message

While this film is a searing account of Gaza, its influence extends widely as a testament to the universal human cost of conflict and the power of personal narratives in war documentation.

Sepideh Farsi’s choice to build the film around a single voice offers a potent reminder that behind every headline and ceasefire negotiation are countless overlooked lives, each marked by trauma and courage.

The dynamic between Farsi and Fatma, an Iranian filmmaker and a Gazan resident who never met in person but are connected through screens, also highlights how modern technology reshapes storytelling and activism under extreme circumstances.

The film’s festival success and critical acclaim have made it a cause célèbre, igniting conversations on media representation of Palestinian suffering and the role of documentary film in conflict zones.

It pushes audiences to consider how stories are shared and received amid global political indifference and complicity. The digital intimacy of the video calls cuts through the noise, creating a narrative that is at once deeply specific and hauntingly universal.

As ceasefire talks falter and the humanitarian crisis worsens, “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” stands as both a document and a memorial, an effort to honor those caught in war’s shadows and amplify the voices of those silenced all too soon.

Fatma’s story challenges viewers to face the brutal truths of occupation without turning away and to consider the relentless resilience of those living in conflict’s grip, soul in hand.

This unique documentary has been widely reviewed and praised for its approach, including by sources such as The New York Times, The Film Stage, RogerEbert.com, and POV Magazine. It has resonated powerfully in an era when personal video storytelling shapes how global conflicts are understood and humanized.​

The film’s rawness and technological immediacy make “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” a standout, capturing a period of recent history through the unfiltered lens of one courageous young woman’s life and death.

It is an essential watch for anyone seeking to grasp the brutal, ongoing reality in Gaza beyond headlines and political debate.

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