Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
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- Javad Djavahery
- Sepideh Farsi
- Sepideh Farsi
- Fatima Hassouna
| Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk | |
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 International release poster | |
| Arabic | ضع روحك على يدك وامشِ |
| Directed by | Sepideh Farsi |
| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Sepideh Farsi |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Cinna Peyghamy |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | New Story (France) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 113 minutes[1] |
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| Languages | |
| Box office | $105,720[4] |
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (Arabic: ضع روحك على يدك وامشِ) is a 2025 documentary film directed by Sepideh Farsi, depicting life in Gaza during the ongoing Israeli military campaign, captured through Farsi's video calls with Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna.[5]
A co-production between France, Palestine and Iran, the documentary premiered at the ACID parallel section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on 15 May.[6] It was theatrically released in France on 24 September by New Story.
Hassouna was killed in an Israeli airstrike alongside nine members of her family on 16 April 2025, the day after the film was selected for the ACID section.[7][8][9] The festival released an official statement expressing condolences and criticizing the ongoing violence in Gaza.[10]
During early 2024, Sepideh Farsi, an Iranian filmmaker living in exile in Paris, travels to Cairo hoping to cross the Egyptian-Palestinian border and document the ongoing war in Gaza, but is prevented to enter in Rafah due to the Blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel.
Farsi, instead, documents the war through video calls interviews with photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, who lives alongside her family in a small apartment in the devastated Northern Gaza. Describing the harsh living conditions imposed to the Gaza population and the civilians casualties, including the killing of her own relatives, Hassouna is constantly interrupted by poor internet connection. The video calls are intertwined with Hassouna's photojournalism work, which was mainly focused in the children's suffering, and news reports providing context of the international response to the ongoing genocide.
As the war intensifies in late 2024, Hassouna continues to documents successive aerial bombings and military activity near her home in Gaza City, which resulted in the death of friends and her displacement to a shelter nearby.
On 15 April 2025, Farsi share the news of the film's selection to the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and Hassouna express her desire to attend its world premiere. Farsi ends the call requesting Hassouna's passport. On the following morning, 16 April 2025, Hassouna and nine relatives were killed in their sleep by an Israeli airstrike on their home.
By May 2025, OHCHR had confirmed the killing of 211 journalists in Gaza since October 7, including 28 women.
Etymology
The original title of the film comes from a description by Fatem, revealed in one of her video conversations with Sepideh, about the ever-present danger of observing that every second she went out in the Gaza streets, "you put your soul on your hands and walk."[11][12][13]
Production
The film was produced by Javad Djavahery of Rêves d'Eau Productions and co-produced by Annie Ohayon Dekel of 24images Production.[14]
Unable to enter Gaza, the producers turned to Fatima Hassouna, a young photographer in the north of the territory, to document life under Israeli siege.[15] In April 2024, director Sepideh Farsi had traveled to Cairo, where she filmed Palestinian refugees in the Egyptian capital. In Cairo, a man who had just left Gaza told her about Fatima Hassouna, a "young, brilliant and talented photographer". Farsi contacted Hassouna and after just two conversations with her, the idea arose to make a film from her point of view, about her life and that of the people trapped in the regularly bombarded coastal strip. The film is based on this almost year-long video exchange between the two women.[16][17]
Release
The film was selected to be screened in the ACID section at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered on 15 May 2025.[18] It released in French theaters on 24 September 2025, distributed by New Story.[19]
