Suleiman and Mona are a couple who lead a solitary life in which they care for animals and trees and have constant heated discussions about their children’s life choices. However, one day, their routine is disturbed when a stranger shows around, calling to mind a painful past.
After fifteen years of imprisonment, Ziad struggles to adjust to modern Palestinian life as the hero everyone hails him to be. Unable to distinguish reality from hallucination he unravels and forces himself to go back to where it all began.
The film discusses different ideologies in terms of religion, geography and intellect reflected as well in the current rifts between different parts of the Arab world. A group of individuals strive to find the hidden truths about themselves.
Gérard Courant's "Filmed Diary" of December 14, 2011, produced in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). Between December 7 and 15, 2011, Gérard Courant was invited by the Dubai International Film Festival, in the United Arab Emirates. It was an opportunity for him to film many "Cinematons" of personalities from the Arab world and to continue his "Film Notebooks" from which he brought back 7 episodes.
As Abu Laila is forced to leave his job as a judge and become a cab driver, he faces a hectic challenge when he's told by his wife to bring a gift and a cake for their daughter's seventh birthday, which proves to be a task more complicated than he expected.
Before leaving to settle abroad, Ahmad accepts one last job. He must audition actors for the new National Palestinian Theatre. On the road with interviewer Bissan and her cameraman Loumir, Ahmad goes in search of talent in the numerous refugee camps of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Hopefully for the last time, Ahmad experiences the insurmountable difficulties of life in Palestine: harassing searches at check points and borders, barricades, constant tension. He realizes the destiny of all waiting refugees is much the same as his own. He ends up guiding the auditioning actors into dramatizing what best embodies their destiny. But with the chance to catch his plane at risk, Ahmad could see the opportunity for his long-awaited exile slip away.
Mohammed lives with his wife and five children in a house located between a Palestinian village and an Israeli settlement. The house becomes a highly strategic location and is occupied by the army. But despite the invasion of Israeli soldiers, Mohammed refuses to leave.
Haifa, nicknamed after the city of his love and hope, goes around and comes around in a Palestinian refugee camp. Although he is everybody's fool, there are many things that only he knows. He is closely related to the family of Abu Said, a former policeman who gains new hopes from the political developments. Oum Said, his wife, hangs her hope on the imminent release of their eldest son, Said, from jail. She tries to find him a bride to secure things for the future. Their youngest son, Siad, is cynical and rebellious. He refuses to believe things. Sabah, the 12 year old daughter is romancing the future and wants to find out what's in it for her. The different stories are interwoven into a very timely insight into the current Palestinian mind.
This drama portrays a day in the life of a Palestinian family during a curfew announced by the Israeli army in a Palestinian refugee camp on the Gaza Strip in 1993. From that point on, they must live behind closed shutters, barred from their daily lives and needs.
Areen Omari is a Palestinian actress and producer. Omari lives in Ramallah. She often works with Rashid Masharawi and has an important role in The Other Son by Lorraine Lévy. Source: Article "Areen Omari" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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