Once Upon a Time in Gaza

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2025

1h 30m

Drama

Crime

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

93%

Tomatometer

14 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Gaza, 2007. Yahya, a young student, forges a friendship with Osama, a charismatic restaurant owner with a big heart. Together, they start peddling drugs while delivering falafel sandwiches, but they are soon forced to grapple with a corrupt cop and his oversized ego....

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Siddhant Adlakha

Variety

Jul 8, 2025

Its self-reflexive, bifurcated story — about using cinematic images to create a revolution — ends up ironically flaccid.

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Yasmine Kandil

Little White Lies

May 27, 2025

The melodrama derives from rich cultural specificity that lends itself well to this tale of love, loss, and unrest.

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Ben Kenigsberg

RogerEbert.com

May 21, 2025

Structurally, “Once Upon a Time in Gaza” is pretty rough (the two halves aren’t tied together well), but the lurching, unpredictable nature of the narrative is of a piece with the movie’s subject and setting.

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Ayaan Paul Chowdhury

The Hindu

Jun 18, 2026

By grounding the film in mundane negotiations of survival and a wicked strain of humour, the Nassers construct a rich, subversive portrait of Gaza, by Gaza and for Gaza.

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Nicolás Medina

Peliplat

Dec 4, 2025

7/10

"What the Nasser brothers are doing is reviving the Gazan imagination, not as a means of escape, but as a space for criticism, memory, and subversion." [Full review in Spanish]

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Panos Kotzathanasis

Asian Movie Pulse

Nov 24, 2025

6.5

Although some minor inconsistencies in the script are present, "Once Upon a Time in Gaza" ultimately stands as an intelligent, sharply humorous, and deeply engaging work.

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Tarzan Nasser

Director

Arab Nasser

Director

Nader Abd Alhay

Yahya

Ramzi Maqdisi

Abou Sami

Majd Eid

Osama

Issaq Elias

Le réalisateur

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Synopsis

Director: Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser
Producer: Rani Massalha, Muriel Merlin, Marie Legrand
Screenwriter: Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser
Production Co: Jordan Pioneers, Riva Film, Made in Palestine Project , Ukbar Filmes, Les Films du Tambour
Genre: Drama, Crime, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: Arabic
Runtime: 1h 30m

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Once Upon a Time in Gaza

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Once Upon a Time in Gaza

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