Amid the ruins of Gaza, where war, famine and displacement have reshaped daily life, a group of Palestinian circus performers has fought to keep joy alive. Their story is the heart of One More Show, a moving documentary screened at the Cairo International Film Festival, portraying the Free Gaza Circus as it juggles, cartwheels and clowns its way through devastation.
Co-directed by Egyptian filmmaker Mai Saad and Palestinian artist Ahmed el-Danaf, the film was shot during the intense escalation of the summer of 2024. With bombed-out buildings as a backdrop, performers are shown helping one another prepare for shows, sharing dwindling supplies of face paint, and offering brief moments of laughter to children sheltering in schools.
A film about daily life, not just destruction
Danaf, 26, who remains in Gaza, filmed much of the footage himself.
“It was the first time I heard someone want to make a film about daily life, not just the bombing and the suffering,” he told AFP.
Communications blackouts, movement restrictions and constant danger made filming difficult, but the team persisted.
With Gaza cut into isolated zones, Danaf sent footage to Saad in Cairo over nearly a year. “Everything we see in the news is from above — people reduced to numbers. I wanted to make a film from below, among the people,” Saad said.
The resulting film blends humour, exhaustion and childlike wonder with the ever-present threat of Israeli air strikes.
Bringing relief to traumatised children
The Free Gaza Circus performs inside makeshift shelters, where children gather around clowns in bright red noses, singing and clapping.
“The point was for these kids to see something besides the war and destruction that surrounds them,” said troupe founder Youssef Khedr, speaking from Gaza.
A gymnastics and parkour specialist, Khedr fled the troupe’s destroyed circus tent in Gaza City and continued training from a shelter in the south. But as food supplies dwindled, the performers struggled to sustain themselves.
Famine forces a pause
By July 2024, famine conditions in northern Gaza had become so severe that the circus suspended its shows.
“We couldn’t offer psychological support to those who haven’t had a bite to eat,” Khedr said.
The United Nations confirmed famine in Gaza City a month later, as the health ministry reported at least 157 child deaths from starvation.
“Even we as artists have been exhausted by hunger,” Khedr said. “There were days when we couldn’t find anything to eat. I would buy 20 grams of sugar for $15.”
Two members of the troupe have been killed since October 7, 2023, and three more injured. Their rehearsal space in northern Gaza has been destroyed.
Persevering through danger
After a brief truce in October 2024, performances resumed on a smaller scale. Danaf spent months moving between shelters in search of an internet signal strong enough to send footage to Saad in Cairo.
Unable to travel to the film’s premiere, Danaf attended virtually, held aloft on a tablet by Saad as the documentary won the Youssef Cherif Rizkallah Audience Award. The $20,000 prize will help rebuild a new circus centre in Gaza.
Art as resistance and healing
One More Show is more than a film about circus performers; it is a portrait of how communities attempt to reclaim fragments of normalcy amid deep trauma. It reflects a belief that laughter, performance and shared creativity can offer psychological refuge, even in times of profound loss.
For Gaza’s circus artists, keeping the show alive is a form of defiance — and, for the children they entertain, a lifeline of hope.