An intimate epic of sorts, Yalla Parkour covers seven years of footage and time and is told from the perspective of the director who one day gets connected with Ahmed, a young aspiring parkour. He gives her a lens into life in Gaza that she never had because of the sacrifices made by her mother that landed them in the U.S. Living in the Gaza strip, the remains and broken buildings end up serving as the source of hope for Ahmed and his fellow parkour enthusiasts who constantly film themselves. When the film’s timeline begins in 2015, Ahmed witnesses his friends get their chance to leave Gaza through their parkour videos, landing them in international competition and a chance to be permanently away from the area. The film highlights the struggles of Ahmed and his peers, not only in their dangerous endeavours, which have exhilarating highs and painful lows, but also contrasts this with the banality of bureaucracy that keeps him from being able to have the chance to see the world beyond Gaza.

Even so, the film is told too much from the director’s perspective. Overall, while she was the one with the filmmaking tools, I did not connect to her ‘proxy connection’ to her homeland. It is not a relationship that was made visceral by the filmmaking presentation. The film spends too much time with her and, overall, n the pace felt a bit too long for what it was addressing. There is some very nice cinematography and, of course, just the thrill of seeing the unique stunts pulled by Ahmed and his parkour friends makes this watch worthwhile. Yet it feels like there would be another approach that would connect better with me and maybe more audiences.

They also choose to not address the ideas of ‘leaving Palestine’ vs ‘saving Palestine’. I feel it may be a topic that gets neglected and something that should have been talked about during the film. (However, the filmmakers know that a lot better than I ever would.) The footage of the parkour does have an ‘on the ground’ and, sometimes, surreal feel. The first image of the boys flipping as bombs go off is a poignant image of seeking joy in the face of great devastation. You see them with smiles on their faces despite the fire clouds that paint the background.

Yalla Parkour is playing at HotDocs ’25. For more information, click here.