It’s one of the most troubling documentaries about war that I have ever watched.
Filmed over several weeks by cameraman James Miller, an old school friend, and Saira Shah, the reporter he works with, it tells the story of a generation of young Palestinian children growing up in the Gaza strip.
The little girls in the film speak of how they count their losses. One counts on two hands the number of friends she has lost to the war, while praying that she too won’t die.
The little boys – some not yet into their teens - attempt to navigate between their desire to stay alive with the almost hypnotic pull of Hamas, the only organisation of any note that is offering meaningful resistance to the Israelis.
As the documentary unwinds we witness two young boys beginning to make pathetic home-made bombs to throw at the Israeli tanks and becoming ever more enmeshed in the junior echelons of Hamas.
After the Gaza documentary James and Saira’s intention had been to make another documentary – this time about Israeli children living in the shadow of war. But it was not to be.