What does it mean to graduate as a doctor when the hospital you trained in lies in ruins?
That is the reality behind The Class, our new campaign with Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The film is inspired by the extraordinary real-life image of 168 young doctors receiving their medical certification last December amid the ruins of Shifa Hospital, formerly Gaza’s largest hospital.
Many of those graduates had already been working on the frontline of Gaza’s devastated health system during their training, stepping into vital roles as more senior colleagues were killed. At their graduation ceremony, empty chairs commemorated students who had themselves been killed before they could graduate.
Our challenge was to capture not only the scale of that devastation, but the humanity, courage and determination of a new generation of Palestinian healthcare workers continuing to care for others in almost unimaginable circumstances.
At the centre of the campaign is The Class, starring Palestinian actor and The Voice of Hind Rajab star Motaz Malhees as a newly qualified doctor addressing his graduating class.
Directed by BAFTA-nominated Molly Manning Walker through Rogue Films, the film turns a graduation speech into something at once defiant, inspiring and vulnerably human.
The campaign continues our work with Medical Aid for Palestinians following last year’s multi award-winning I Know, drawing renewed attention to Palestinian healthcare workers and the extraordinary conditions in which they continue to provide care.
Because these doctors should never have had to learn, work or save lives in these circumstances. But every day, they still do.