OTHER VOICES (ASWAT ACHERIM), a full-length documentary film directed by Nigerian-American filmmaker Ose Oyamendan debuted in virtual cinemas across the United States and Canada on Friday, March 6, 2021.
OTHER VOICES is the story of unlikely friends in Gaza and Sderot, the war zone of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Filmed over seven years, the film follows a group of friends in the battlefield of the conflict. The characters have lost family members, friends, and properties in the conflict but are all willing to fight to bring peace to their neighborhood.
“Sderot and Gaza used to be like one. People visited each other, I took my driving lessons in Gaza. It was all great until the intifada and the walls went up. Since then, it’s been hell,” says one of the characters in the movie.
A graduate of the prestigious film program at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Ose was drawn to the story after a chance meeting with some Israeli NGO members while filming in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
“You know about the conflict, it’s not a big secret,” Ose begins. “And growing up in Ibadan, I have friends and schoolmates that were Jewish and Arab. I wrote something about that experience but it was my meeting with these three NGO folks in Port Au Prince that let to ASWAT ACHERIM. I couldn’t believe there were friends across these two towns where thousands of people have lost their lives and billions of dollars’ worth of properties have been ruined. We dug in and came out with this inspiring story about some of the most incredible people on God’s earth.”
OTHER VOICES is being celebrated as one of the most important films to have ever come out of the conflict. With rare access to life in Gaza, the film offers an unbiased and unfiltered lens into the conflict from a human angle. In a story with very political biases, this film manages to show the human side.
The film is available in virtual theatres at
https://www.darkroom.film/theaterdetail/other-voices
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