Hazem Alqaddi

Hazem Alqaddi (1998) graduated from the UNRWA Schools in Gaza and arrived in Belgium in 2018, eager for a new life outside of occupied Palestine. He is a passionate rollerblader, kitemaker, chef, and storyteller. He discovered filmmaking in 2019 when he co-directed Old Child (2020) and has been recording with commitment ever since to express what’s on his mind. His feature debut, made together with Elettra Bisogno,The Roller, The Life, The Fight, premiered in 2024.

Old Child

Elettra Bisogno, Hazem Alqaddi, Belgium, Palestine, 2019, 16’

Old Child depicts the fragmented story of Hazem, who had to flee Gaza. Throughout this stream-of-consciousness montage of dreams and reminiscences, he searches for order but also for the beauty he left behind.

Old Child (Elettra Bisogno & Hazem Alqaddi, 2019)

essay

Flickering Memories

Elettra Bisogno & Hazem Alqaddi’s Old Child

Savina Petkova

10.05.2025

For a refugee or an immigrant, memories of a prior life are not simply broken; they are snapped in two, three, four, or more pieces and doomed to exist separately. These split memories can emit a particular shine, as attested by Elettra Bisogno and Hazem Alqaddi’s short Old Child. The film dwells in the paradox of its title, where old age and childhood are readily coupled, as if there were no time or space in between these two ends of a human life spectrum. Of course, the title also holds melancholy, which is only one feeling in the vast emotional landscape of Old Child.

artikel

Rolschaatsen als verzet

Elettra Bisogno en Hazem Alqaddi’s Old Child

Yousra Benfquih

26.10.2024

In Old Child van Elettra Bisogno en Hazem Alqaddi schetsen droomachtige, onscherpe beelden de herinneringen van Hazem, die uit Gaza migreerde naar België. Halverwege de kortfilm, wanneer hij steile trappen af dendert, leren we dat Hazem een rolschaatser is. Meer dan een moment van kinderlijke vreugde middenin een stroom van complexere beelden en traumatische herinneringen die voor Hazem’s geestesoog verschijnen, symboliseert het rolschaatsen een verlangen naar beweging — in sterk contrast met de beperkingen op de bewegingsvrijheid van de Palestijnen in de context van hun koloniale bezetting.

Hazem Alqaddi

Old Child

Flickering Memories

Rolschaatsen als verzet

double bill #21

curated by Jacqueline Nsiah