UK Venues: We Need Your Solidarity.

Host a Screening & Help Support the Puppeteers of Gaza

British UNIMA is calling on UK theatres, arts centres, universities, festivals and community spaces to help amplify the Artists of Hope campaign from UNIMA International.

On 26 August 2025, THEMAA (UNIMA France) received an urgent request from Murad Al-Maghari, a Palestinian puppeteer seeking assistance to flee the Gaza Strip with his family. Murad asked for help navigating an application to the PAUSE programme, a scheme run by the Collège de France that provides endangered artists and researchers with a one-year renewable Talent visa and coordinated evacuation for their families.

In an extraordinary act of international solidarity, and in close collaboration with UNIMA International, three PAUSE applications were submitted on 25 September:

• Murad Al-Maghari and his family, hosted by the CDN of Rouen-Normandie

• Mahdi Karira and his family, hosted by the TNG in Lyon, with the Gadagne Museums as partners

• Yousef Al Hindi and his family, hosted by Théâtre Château Rouge in Annemasse

The results of the selection will be known in late November / early December.

Why screenings matter now

Until then, these puppeteers and their families remain in Gaza in extremely precarious living conditions.
The cost of basic survival has become exorbitant:

• $50 USD per day to feed a family of five

• $70 USD for one week of firewood

• $50 USD for a single item of clothing

• $15–30 USD for basic hygiene products

Due to interrupted transfer channels, only around 50% of donated funds reach the families, making every contribution vital.

To support them directly, UNIMA International and THEMAA are asking national centres and partner organisations around the world — including venues in the UK — to host benefit screenings of three recent films about Mahdi Karira, with all proceeds going to these families.

The Three Films Available for Screening

1. Everything That Is (2025)

Directed by Shourideh C. Molavi (20 minutes)

A deeply moving documentary following Mahdi as he transforms the rubble of Gaza into puppets. Through Mahdi’s creative process and the poetry of Jawad al-Aqqad, the film captures art as a form of resistance, tenderness and survival.

2. We Truly Deserve to Live! (2025)

Sand-theatre performance directed by Catherine Gignac (9’30”)

Recorded at the Float2Gaza event in Slovenia, this intimate performance is created from Mahdi’s own testimony. It offers a personal and poetic account of a puppeteer’s life shaped by destruction, resilience and hope.

3. The Awakening (2024)

A short film by Mahdi Karira (4’57”)

The final chapter of the From Ground Zero project — a global collaboration of Gaza filmmakers. This piece stands beside a body of work described by The Guardian as “a heart-breaking mosaic of ordinary life in extremis.”

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How UK Venues Can Take Part

UNIMA International invites theatres, studios, arts centres, festivals, universities and community spaces across the UK to:

• Host fundraising screenings

• Share the campaign within local networks

• Provide visibility to the crowdfunding efforts of the affected families

• Join the wider international community in offering concrete, material support

Venues planning ticketed or donation-based events can contact the UNIMA International Treasurer (treasurer@unima.org) for guidance on transferring funds.

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Request the Films / Get the Screening Protocol

All information — including how to request access to the films — is available here:

👉 UNIMA International Campaign:
📄 Download the How-To Guide & Request the Films:
“How to Participate in the Screenings: 3 Films about Mahdi Karira”

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Final Thoughts

At a time when artistic solidarity is more necessary than ever, every screening, every donation and every act of sharing helps these puppeteers and their families continue to live, create and hope.

British UNIMA will continue to pass on updates and support the coordination work of UNIMA International & THEMAA.

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