Hélène Lam Trong: Inside Gaza
The AFP team based in Gaza, after reporting on several wars, had long adapted to life under blockade. For 17 years, their routines were shaped by funerals, scarcity, and severe restrictions on leaving the Strip. But after the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent military response, their existence descended into an even deeper nightmare.
From that moment, they themselves became direct targets. They lost homes, friends, and in some cases family members. Their reporting was twisted, misrepresented, and openly challenged online as well as in segments of the international press. Some voices branded them Hamas operatives, others Israeli informants—accusations that exposed them to mortal risks from every direction.
Now, more than a year into the conflict, many are far from Gaza, scattered across countries as refugees, trying to piece together new lives while powerless to help colleagues and relatives still trapped inside. The war—triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented assault on Israel—has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Gaza and injured well over 100,000, according to figures from the health ministry run by Hamas.
INSIDE GAZA offers a rare, first-hand perspective on this conflict through the eyes of those caught in its grip. It is a chronicle of journalism itself coming under siege, assailed by propaganda and disinformation, raising profound questions about the role and limits of war reporting.
Through an unusual storytelling method, director Hélène Lam Trong works hand in hand with the very journalists who filmed inside Gaza. The documentary interweaves their original on-the-ground footage with new material captured after their evacuation, following their attempts to rebuild lives in the UK, Egypt, France, and Belgium.
About the Author
Hélène Lam Trong (b. 1982) is a French documentary filmmaker whose work often explores themes of justice, identity, and the aftermath of conflict.
She studied at the Institute of Political Studies in Toulouse and later at CELSA Paris, earning her degree in Information and Communication Sciences. In 2014, she directed L’absente, maman est en prison (The Absent One, Mom is in Prison). In 2017, she co-created the video project Asiatique de France with Frédéric Chau and Anggun, standing against anti-Asian racism and drawing wide media attention.
Between 2018 and 2020, she directed several films for France 2, including Joséphine H, Lilian Dubus et L’Enfant roux, Daech: les enfants du soupçon (ISIS: Children of Suspicion), and Réseaux de la colère (Networks of Anger).
Her 2023 documentary Daech, les enfants fantômes (ISIS: the Ghost Children), produced by Fabienne Servan-Schreiber, received the Albert Londres Prize for an audio-visual work. In 2024, she continued her exploration of Syria with Raqqa, l’ombre de Daech (Raqqa, the Shadow of ISIS).
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