The story of Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk isn't your typical war documentary. Instead of boots-on-the-ground reporting or archival footage stitched together by a distant narrator, Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi builds something more intimate — a series of video calls with Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, who's living through the current Israeli military campaign in Gaza. What emerges over the film's 113 minutes is less a traditional news account and more a portrait of daily survival, creative work, and the strange, taxing reality of bearing witness from inside a conflict zone. The format itself becomes the message: two women, separated by distance and circumstance, connected only by a screen, trying to hold onto documentation and humanity when everything else feels fragile.
There's no grand narrative arc here, no three-act structure. Just conversations. Hassouna describes her work as a photojournalist, her life confined within Gaza's borders, the logistics of survival in a place where normal routines have collapsed. Farsi listens, asks follow-up questions, sometimes sits in silence — the kind of silence that only video calls allow, where you can't quite tell if the connection's frozen or if someone's just thinking. It's uncomfortable in places. Deliberately so.
Behind the making of Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
The film comes from 24images and Rêves d'Eau productions, a Franco-Iranian partnership that's typically worked in documentary and experimental formats. Sepideh Farsi directing a project rooted in real-time documentation — video calls, no scripts, no crew in the field — represents a shift in how conflict filmmaking can happen when traditional access is impossible or unsafe. The production itself becomes a statement about creative constraint: you work with what you have, which in this case is bandwidth, a camera pointed at a screen, and the willingness of someone on the other end to keep showing up to the call.
Released in 2025, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk arrives at a moment when documentary audiences are increasingly skeptical of the old gatekeeping model — the idea that only established news organizations with resources can tell these stories. Farsi's approach bypasses that entirely. There's no budget for a satellite truck or a security detail. There's just two people, one of whom happens to be a trained photojournalist, trying to create a record. The film carries a 7.2/10 rating on IMDb, which reflects what you'd expect from a work this formally unconventional and emotionally demanding — it won't appeal to everyone, but those it reaches tend to find it necessary. Movie OTT tracks where the film's currently streaming, making it accessible to viewers who want to engage with documentaries that challenge the usual frameworks.
What makes Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk stand out
Here's what's striking about this film: it refuses the temptation to be a hero narrative. Farsi isn't swooping in to "save" the story or "expose" the truth in a way that centers her own moral authority. She's a witness to a witness. That distinction matters — and it's rare. Most conflict documentaries still operate on the assumption that the filmmaker is the one doing the important work of documentation, with subjects as supporting characters in that journey. Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk inverts that. Hassouna's the one taking the photographs, doing the actual dangerous work, carrying the camera into situations where it matters. Farsi's job is to listen and to make sure that testimony doesn't disappear into the void.
The performances — and yes, I'm calling them performances, because that's what these are, acts of self-presentation under pressure — carry the weight of the entire film. Hassouna speaks with a kind of matter-of-factness about circumstances that would shatter most people. She describes her days, her fears, her continued commitment to documenting what she sees, often with a weariness that feels more honest than any manufactured emotion could be. There's no melodrama here. Just exhaustion, determination, and the peculiar resilience of someone who's decided that bearing witness is worth the cost.
What nobody mentions when they talk about films like this is how much of the power comes from what isn't said. Long stretches where the connection lags, where you're watching someone's face freeze mid-expression, where the conversation circles back on itself because there's only so much you can process about survival before you need to talk about something smaller — the weather, a meal, a moment of unexpected beauty. One reviewer noted that "filmmaking under fire can't be easy," and that observation captures something true: the act of documentation itself becomes an act of resistance, a refusal to let the world turn away. Movie OTT's streaming availability makes it possible for viewers everywhere to engage with that resistance directly.
How to stream Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk online
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk is currently available on major OTT services — you can check the Where to Watch widget at the top of this page for real-time platform availability in your region. Streaming services rotate titles regularly, so if you're planning to watch, don't wait too long. The film's 113-minute runtime means you'll want to set aside time to sit with it fully; this isn't something that rewards half-attention or multitasking. Some documentaries work as background viewing. This one demands your focus. The video-call format means the visual language is deliberately constrained — you're watching screens within screens, compression artifacts and bandwidth limitations are part of the aesthetic — which makes the experience even more immediate when you're watching it on your own screen at home.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Who directed Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk?
The film was directed by Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi. It's a production of 24images and Rêves d'Eau productions, representing a Franco-Iranian collaboration focused on documentary storytelling.
Q: What's the runtime of Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk?
The documentary runs 113 minutes. It's structured around a series of video calls between Farsi and photojournalist Hassouna, so the pacing is conversational rather than conventionally edited.
Q: Is Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk based on a true story?
It's not based on a story — it is a real story. The film documents actual video calls between filmmaker Sepideh Farsi and Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna during the current conflict in Gaza. It's direct documentary testimony, not a dramatization.
Q: Where can I watch Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk?
The film is available on major OTT streaming services. Check the Where to Watch widget above for current availability in your region, as streaming rights vary by location and change frequently.
Q: What's the IMDb rating for Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk?
The film holds a 7.2/10 rating on IMDb. That score reflects its unconventional format and emotionally demanding subject matter — it's the kind of documentary that won't resonate with everyone, but those it reaches often find it essential viewing.
Final thoughts on Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk won't be easy to watch. It's not designed to be. But that's exactly why it matters. In a media landscape cluttered with slick production values and narrative shortcuts, a documentary willing to sit in discomfort — to let silences breathe, to trust its subjects, to refuse easy answers — feels almost radical. What's striking is how much humanity survives in the frame, even when the frame itself is just a pixelated video call. Hassouna's work as a photojournalist continues because the alternative is silence, and silence is a kind of erasure. Farsi's film ensures that erasure doesn't happen. If you're looking for documentaries that challenge both form and conscience, this one belongs on your list.