In the ruins of Gaza, a group of young circus performers insists on laughter as a form of survival. Dayel ‘Anna ‘Ard (One More Show, 2025) follows members of the Gaza Free Circus in the months after October 2023 as they stage performances for children amid bombed neighborhoods and overcrowded shelters, offering fleeting moments of joy for an enclave defeated by loss, fear, and uncertainty. Filmed in July 2024, when Gaza was under the heaviest bombardment in its history, the Egyptian-Palestinian feature-length documentary marks the first feature film for its directors, Egyptian filmmaker Mai Saad, and Palestinian co-director and cinematographer, Ahmed Al-Danf. The performers, including Yousef Khader, Mohamed Ayman, Mohamed Obeid (known as Just), Ahmed Zeyara (known as Batout), Ismail Farhat, and other circus artists, refuse to succumb to despair and travel across Gaza staging shows for children. The film examines the power of laughter amid constant danger. Its emotional core alternates between circus performances of juggling, clowning, singing, and dancing, and intimate conversations among the performers themselves. While the circus scenes recur with limited visual or conceptual variation, providing a warm tone for the film, the interview segments with…
