Le chanteur de Gaza

This is a beautifully made movie highlighting parts of Mohammed Assaf's life, that give us a feel of where he's from, his childhood in Gaza, his talent for music and where he finally got to. It is a fantastic movie, that will touch your heart and make you fall in love with the humble young man who really changed his life around, and you can still see the modesty and humility behind his smile. This movie will take you on the journey of Assaf's life, right from his childhood growing up through the harshness of war, saving money to accomplish his dreams and his beautiful relationship with his family. This movie will make you laugh, cry, and feel so happy and proud of Assaf's accomplishments, whether you're Palestinian or from another part of the world. A MUST watch.

The film is a bad representation of reality. The acting is cheesy. The cinematography is more like a slang TV drama than being an actual cinematic experience. The film all in all has this amateurish feeling. The script is naïve and too straight forward, more like an average student script. I was expecting to see more of a multi- layered journey, showcasing Gaza, the people who live there, their daily life and suffering within Assaf's story, as well as a realistic representation of the actual environment where Mohammad Assaf was born and raised, but unfortunately that wasn't the direction at all.

On the contrary I found the film experience cheap, childish, and melodramatic, in some parts it says that now we're in Lebanon while we see shots of Jordan instead, lots of shots were out of sync as apparently the director decided to change the script after the production was over (and asked the actors to record new lines, and stuck the new lines on their mouths)...

Overall I would say this piece of work is a great example of films that doesn't respect its audience.

This is the basically true story of Palestinian Mohammad Assaf, who won "Arab Idol" in 2013 and is now a goodwill ambassador for the UN. Those who know of his success will love to re-live it. But for perhaps the majority of westerners this is an inspiring, universal story of love conquering fear. The first 90 minutes are set in Gaza, where Assaf was raised. He showed talent early on. We assume that his sick sister will recover. But we're wrong. We're led to believe that Mohammad was inspired to succeed. The story of Mohammad's struggle to enter "Arab Idol" seems incredible. But he really did get a forged visa to Egypt, where the 2013 finals were held, and he really did break into the hotel to audition because he didn't have a ticket. The rest is history. The genuine footage of Mohammad's success being celebrated by thousands of people in streets throughout the Arab world is astonishing. Few will be able to suppress a tear as Mohammad states that he entered the contest because he wanted Palestine's voice to be heard. After success in Toronto, the film played the London Film Festival, where director Hany Abu-Assad revealed that he was mostly unable to shoot in Gaza, ostensibly because he was born in Israel. But the principal children during that first 90 minutes are Palestinian and it seems they were allowed to be taken elsewhere for the shoot, possibly Jordan. Mohammed Assaf was also present at the screening and claimed to be very proud of the way in which he was represented. This record of a talent contest inspiring goodwill between nations that continues to this day puts the nonsense that sustains the likes of "The X Factor" into a very real perspective.

The movies shows us how Mohammed becomes one of the most influential singers in the Arabic world. Apart from this point, nothing else special. This is a movie so when I watched it, I was hoping to see sth more. For example, how hard it was for Mohammed to achieve his goal. Selling grilled fish to buy instruments he needed was a good starting point, then I need to see more. If you want people to like your characters you create, you need more stories about them. Also more about traits/personalities, and characters' inner world. It was a good point to show us his inner struggle after he became famous few minutes before the movie ended. There should be more scenes like that.

The beautiful, moving story of Mohammad Assaf told in a very feel-good manner. The movie follows the same formula you might see in similar movies made in Hollywood, however context is important in this case: just as Mohammad Assaf gave Palestine a reason to celebrate, to feel proud of their nation, the movie does the same. It's a change of narrative, a chance to uplift and inspire. The strongest parts are the relationship between young Mohammad and her sister, and seeing them run and bike around the state, just letting the audience take in the setting. Crossing the border and eventually getting the audition were also strong, thrilling parts. Tawfeek Barhom does a decent to good job as grown-up Mohammad, but the Idol parts get a little awkward and Tawfeek is rather poorly edited into the screen singing. There was certainly a struggle there. Despite that though, I found myself moved.