LAHORE: The cries of horror and Israeli bombardment echoed through the halls of a screening room in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore last week, where audience members viewed the riveting stories about the atrocities in Gaza on the big screen.

A total of seven Palestinian films were screened at the Simurgh International Film and Arts Festival at Olomopolo Media, an interdisciplinary cultural and social space in Lahore. The festival began on Oct. 23 and ran until Nov. 1.

The films revolving around Palestinian characters each told a unique story about the lives of the people there, with curators saying the aim was to allow Palestinians to tell their experiences through their own voices.

Gaza’s Patient Heart, Abu Jabal, The Hidden War on Palestinian Women, Write My Name, Born Free and Hind Under Siege were the films screened at the venue on Friday. The stories explored themes of displacement, women and families affected by Israel’s war on Gaza and everyday life in the territory.

Saadat Munir, curator of the film festival, said most of the stories told through the films were done “through the lens” of people suffering in Gaza.

“I think it’s not about the Palestinian cinema, it’s about the Palestinian voices,” Munir said.

Kanwal Khoosat, the executive director of Olomopolo and co-curator, said the festival was one where “reistance narratives” were showcased.

“Palestinian narratives, especially about the genocide that’s been going on for around two years, it has never been irrelevant, historically speaking,” Khoosat said.

“But now that the genocide is happening so actively, I would say when else are we going to speak up and, you know, share their narratives with the world at large?“

Ali Raza, a student organizer of the left-wing Progressive Students Collective, said often masses become numb to mass murder or genocide and start viewing them only as numbers.

“Human lives, when it seems that some numbers are increasing, people stop caring,” he said. “Its intensity, its pain, reduces.”

Films, he said, could reverse that effect by connecting viewers with narratives and individual characters.

“It is important that we go into the lives of each person, and understand how it feels,” Raza said. “How does a child feel? How does an elderly person feel? How does a young person feel?“

Pakistan’s government does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and has constantly pushed for a two-state solution to the conflict in the Middle East. Thousands of Pakistani students, politicians, members of civil society and people from all walks of life have held protest marches and demonstrations against Israel’s military actions in Gaza and in other parts of the Middle East since Oct. 7, 2023.

Pakistan has also consistently criticized Israel, which has killed over 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza alone since October 2023.

Audience members at the screening said they felt moved by the Palestinian tragedies. Sana Zahra Hussain, a 30-year-old filmmaker and educator, said hearing Palestinians narrate their own experiences created an intimacy she rarely experienced while consuming news.

“When we see the news, we see them as numbers,” she said. “But when we see these documentaries, and when we see a mother talking about her son, and when we see a young girl speaking about losing her brother, it sort of gives them more humanity.”

’NO LONGER NUMBERS’

Faisal Ghani Qureshi, a 48-year-old freelancer, said the screenings offered a perspective beyond the broader picture presented to the masses in daily news reports.

“Here you see the human aspect of what each individual is facing right now,” he said, pointing to homelessness, displacement and uncertainty over survival.

“That’s what connects you to them.”

Gaza may be thousands of miles away from Hussain and many others like her. However, when she sees the pain and suffering narrated on screen, she feels instantly connected to each individual.

“They are no longer numbers to us,” she said. “They are real people, and their grief feels more real, and there is a lot more depth to them.”

For Munir, the aim of such festivals is simple: make sure people stay alert and keep talking about human tragedies.

“There’s famine going on, there’s genocide going on,” he said. “The kids are not getting any sort of medications. There’s nothing going on. “So, we need to talk about it to stop it.”