UK Journalist Returns Home After US Detention, Flags Free Speech Threat
November 14, 2025
November 15, 2025 – Palestine –
A new documentary titled Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk portrays the life of Palestinian photojournalist and poet Fatma Hassona, documenting her work in Gaza through her own lens and remote conversations. The film was crafted by Iranian-French filmmaker Sepideh Farsi after she was unable to enter Gaza and instead connected with Hassona via regular video calls from April 2024 to April 2025.
The structure of the documentary stems from their hour-long video chats, often conducted under disrupted internet connectivity and amid bombardment. Hassona, then around 24-25 years old, shared her daily realities: documenting destruction, photographing children playing among ruins, writing poems, and art-reflections on life under siege. Her mantra, captured in one call, was: “Every second you go out in the street, you put your soul in your hands and walk.”
Tragically, just one day after the film’s selection for the Cannes Film Festival’s ACID parallel section, Hassona and several family members were killed in an air strike in northern Gaza. Her death added an unplanned yet deeply affecting layer to the documentary, which now stands both as her voice and a memorial.
Farsi’s commentary reflects the duality of their friendship: from joyful video chats to the looming dread of loss. She described Hassona’s constant optimism even while recounting bombings and loss. The film juxtaposes Farsi’s freedoms abroad with Hassona’s constricted and perilous existence in Gaza — visually and emotionally conveyed through split-screen phone footage and still photography by Hassona herself.
For the user’s newsletter and the “Targeting Journalists is a Crime” platform, this documentary highlights both the creativity and risk faced by journalists working under conflict. Hassona’s story illustrates how reporting and witnessing can become acts of resistance — and how coverage of her own work became intertwined with the danger she faced. The film invites reflection on the stakes for journalists operating in war zones, especially when they are the story itself.
Reference –
New documentary focuses on life of Palestinian photojournalist and poet living in Gaza
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/11/12/put_your_soul_on_your_hand
