'NO SPECIAL EFFECTS, BUT LIVE BULLETS' Gazan twins in Cannes say 'nothing left' of homeland

Twin Gazan filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser said they never thought the title of their new film, Once Upon A Time In Gaza, would have such heartbreaking resonance.

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"Right now, there is nothing left of Gaza," Tarzan said when the film premiered Monday at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Nasser brothers, who left Gaza in 2012, said their new film set in 2007, when Hamas Islamists seized control of the strip, explains the lead-up to today's catastrophic war.

Once Upon A Time In Gaza, which screened in the festival's Un Certain Regard section, follows friends Yahia and Osama as they try to make a little extra cash by selling drugs stuffed into felafel sandwiches.

Using a manual meat grinder that does not rely on rare electricity, student Yahia blends up fava beans and fresh herbs to make the patty-shaped fritters in the back of Osama's small rundown eatery, while dreaming of being able to leave the Israeli-blockaded coastal strip.