Premiering at the Adelaide Film Festival, this new Australian documentary observes what it means to see, feel and return from Gaza.
When two doctors from Sydney left their families to travel to Gaza in 2024, they knew they would confront unimaginable tragedy, death and destruction. What they didn’t expect was how deeply it would affect them and the people they left behind.
Their journey and experiences – before, during, and after – lie at the heart of Until the Sky Falls Quiet. Set to premiere at this year’s Adelaide Film Festival, it is directed and produced by Erica Long (A Lion Returns, It’s Our Time) and Jason Korr of Avenoir Productions and follows Dr. Sanjay Adusumilli, a surgeon, and Dr. Siraj Sira, a GP, as they travel from Sydney to Gaza on a humanitarian medical mission.
What unfolds is not a story about politics but about humanity, the best kind that persists even when the world around it falls apart. The majority of the Gaza footage in the documentary was captured by the doctors themselves, together with other humanitarian aid workers, risking their own lives trying to save others. In a place where foreign media is rarely allowed in independently, Until the Sky Falls Quiet becomes an act of bearing witness to the truth. Witness not just to the atrocities and sorrow, but equally to the courage, dignity and resilience of the Palestinians.
The film also follows the emotional aftermath once the doctors return to Australia, the dissonance of coming home to safety while the people they treated and befriended remain trapped. The filmmakers describe it as a story of bearing witness twice: first to what happened in Gaza, and then to how it changes those who can’t forget.
As the situation in Gaza continues to evolve, first-hand experiences such as these remain important and relevant documents of the reality of what has occurred. The truth of the human face, the human toll, of what is happening in Gaza. Truths that remind us of the fragility and preciousness of life, as well as the importance of vigilance, of not looking away even when we have the luxury to do so.
One of the humanitarian aid workers who contributed footage to the documentary is Khaled Shakhshir, a Palestinian / Australian aid worker, engineer and marketing specialist who is also one of the documentary’s executive producers. For him, the film represents a bridge between lived experience and collective memory.
“Every day in Gaza, people are doing impossible things just to survive,” says Shakhshir. “You cannot begin to imagine the courage, resilience and utter exhaustion of the healthcare workers in Gaza. I’ve seen doctors operating without anaesthetic, and little children who are now the heads of their households.”
“Our hope was to make a film which shows that Palestinian deaths aren’t just numbers in a news report,” says Erica Long, Director / Producer. “Each person is a human being with a name, with an entire life story, and each death is an entire future torn apart, with countless connected lives forever changed.”
“This is a story about the best and worst of humanity,” adds Jason Korr, Director / Producer. “We see through the lens of health professionals travelling to the other side of the world not just to help people but to also connect with them. People who still manage to find moments of beauty and joy in extraordinary difficulty.”
“Until the Sky Falls Quiet is a powerful piece that will stay with you,” says Christine Williams, Executive Producer (When Pomegranates Howl, You’ll Never Find Me). “Not just the heartbreaking moments, but also, hopefully, the connection it creates to fellow human beings, people we will never know, but who will now forever be with us. “
Until the Sky Falls Quiet will have its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival on Saturday 18th October. This screening will be followed by a live Q&A with Dr Adusumilli and Dr Sira. A second screening is scheduled for Saturday 25 October, with the film also in competition for the Adelaide Film Festival’s Change Award.
