Palestine, Germany, France, Cyprus and Qatar
2022
Arabic dialogue with Swedish subtitles
108 min
Waleed (40) lives in Haifa with his wife and children and dreams of a writing career while suffering from chronic depression. He develops a close friendship with his neighbour (a small-time crook) with an ulterior plot in mind. While the scheme turns into an unexpected friendship between the two men, it leads them into a journey of dark encounters.
Awards: Best Screenplay, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival 2022; Firebird Award, Hong Kong Film Festival, 2022; Palestine’s official entry for the Oscars, 2023.
Waleed (40) lives in Haifa with his wife and children and dreams of a writing career while suffering from chronic depression. He develops a close friendship with his neighbour (a small-time crook) with an ulterior plot in mind. While the scheme turns into an unexpected friendship between the two men, it leads them into a journey of dark encounters.
Awards: Best Screenplay, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival 2022; Firebird Award, Hong Kong Film Festival, 2022; Palestine’s official entry for the Oscars, 2023.
Waleed (40) lives in Haifa with his wife and children and dreams of a writing career while suffering from chronic depression. He develops a close friendship with his neighbour (a small-time crook) with an ulterior plot in mind. While the scheme turns into an unexpected friendship between the two men, it leads them into a journey of dark encounters.
Awards: Best Screenplay, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival 2022; Firebird Award, Hong Kong Film Festival, 2022; Palestine’s official entry for the Oscars, 2023.
Maha Haj was born in Nazareth in 1970. She holds a BA in English literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MA in Arabic literature. Her cinematic experience was first acquired while working as an artistic designer in the productions of The Time That Remains by Elia Suleiman, The Attack by Ziad Douairi, and On the Hill by Rafael Natjari. She wrote and directed the short film Oranges (2009) and the documentary Behind These Walls (2010). In 2015, she shot her first feature film Personal Affairs, which premiered, to critical acclaim, during the 2016 Cannes Film Festival as part of the official selection of “Un Certain Regard”. The film won the Best Feature Award at the Haifa Film Festival in 2016 and the Critics’ Award at the International Mediterranean Film Festival Montpellier (Cinémed), among others.