A conversation with Gaza’s ‘boy wonders’ Arab and Tarzan

From Mondoweiss - This week, the DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival opens in Washington, DC. One of the featured pieces is a unique production called Condom Lead, directed by identical twin brothers from Gaza, Mohammed and Ahmed Abu Nasser – better known as Arab and Tarzan.

Reading the news, memories came flooding back. While I was living in Gaza during the winter and spring of 2011, I shot a series of video vignettes with local residents who embodied, for me, the spirit of creative, non-violent resistance – “faces” of Gaza the world normally never sees. Many of these kindred spirits to whom I was drawn were artists. And two of them were Arab and Tarzan. (Look at their pictures and you’ll immediately think you know why. Watch this interview, however, and you’ll learn the true inspiration behind the names.)

Three impressions come to mind when I recall the days I spent with them in Gaza: 1) How much I felt like their little sister even though I was so much older. They constantly teased me, laughing hysterically when I repeated Arabic words they taught me, only to find out that they were “bad.” 2) Awe. They are truly “renaissance” men, equally good at playing the guitar, making movies and painting (one of Arab’s oils hangs on my bedroom wall). And 3) A conviction that if they could just get exposure outside of Gaza, I’d say I “knew them when” someday. And I was right.

Late last year, I caught up with Arab via Skype in their current home in Amman, Jordan, and chatted about what has happened since those days when we goofed around in Gaza. How did they arrive at today, when they are getting the attention they so richly deserve? (In 2013, Condom Lead became the first film from Gazan Palestinians to be accepted into the Cannes Film Festival.) My first question was why they had left Gaza.

“We never had any thoughts about leaving Gaza and living abroad,” he said sadly. “The thought of returning is always there. We miss our family and friends, and the Gaza that we consider to be our heaven. But the harassment by the government became too much.”

Filmmaking is not common in Gaza (in fact, there is no formal film school, or cinemas for that matter). Combine that with the twins’ decidedly bohemian looks and the provocative nature of much of their work, and you have a mix that does not fit well with the current Islamic government.

“We were always being questioned by the ministries of internal and cultural affairs,” explained Arab, adding that their films were banned as well.

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