Asma Bseiso is an award-winning filmmaker, media consultant and trainer, and began her career in 2007. In 2008, she enrolled in the Documentary Filmmaking Fellowship Program at George Washington University. She also received training from the University of Southern California in partnership with the Royal Film Commission of Jordan.

In 2009, Asma traveled to Gaza to direct her medium-length documentary I Am Gaza, which was the opening film at the Amal Festival in Spain and the guest of honor at the Arab Film Festival in Algeria. In 2013, she obtained a Higher Diploma from the Madrid Film Institute in Directing for Film and Television. Her 2016 feature documentary, Aisha, won the Best Film Award at the Malmö Film Festival in Sweden.

Over the years, Asma has worked with several television broadcasters such as ARTE, France 24, MBC, Al Jazeera, and Al Araby, and co-produced a film for PBS. She has also worked with non-governmental organizations such as the United Nations, the German Agency for International Cooperation, and others. She has provided filmmaking workshops for beginners in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Palestine.

In 2021, Asma traveled to Gaza with the aim of giving workshops to the people of the Strip following the aggression in May of that year. She also produced her new feature film entitled The Seven Waves.

Starting with the story of the prophet Job who was healed by his seven baptisms, the film The Seven Waves presents the healing relationship Gazans have with the sea. Director Asma Bseiso follows the lives of Mohammed, a sea rescuer and fisherman, and Bisan, a swimmer and rower. For them, the sea is a source of life and dreams. As vital as the sea is, so deadly it can become. In The Seven Waves, through the narratives of our protagonists, we learn about an array of issues, from the working conditions of rescuers to gender differences in sports. The meager opportunities of both sports champions and people lost in the sea attempting to cross maritime borders highlight the brutality of the Israeli apartheid regime. The severity of the impenetrable borders is also seen in the daily work of fishermen, who often have to endure the brutality of the Israeli border patrol. Despite all this, the film never ceases to exhibit Gazans’ hope and love of life. The documentary was released in September 2023—just a month before the beginning of the destruction of Gaza—and is a tribute to the director's colleague and cinematographer, Rushdi Sarraj, who was martyred in October 2023.

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Rabab El Mouadden
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The texts have been produced by the network Filmmakers for Palestine gr.
*We consider Filmmakers to be every person who designs, implements, analyzes and teaches cinema: from editors to assistant directors, from lighting technicians to film critics, from viewers to programmers. A film is created by every gaze that shapes it.

Editing & Translation Team: Sofia Grigoriadou, Christina Phoebe, Maximillien Luc Proctor, Sophia Thomopoulos