Film director Amjad Abu Alala studied media at the United Arab Emirates University and works as a producer and independent director at Twofour54 Abu Dhabi. He has many short narrative lms, including "Teena", "Feathers of the Birds", "On the Pavement of the Soul" and "Studio", which was supervised by the Iranian international director Abbas Kiarostami. In 2012, he won the Best Arabic Play award from the Arab Authority for "Apple Pies".
When searching for a blessing on the day of her first born’s naming ceremony, a mother is instead foretold a curse: her son, Muzamil, will die at the age of 20. Muzamil’s father cannot stand the doom and travels away from home. Sakina raises her son alone with over protection. Growing up under the constant loom of death, Muzamil finds friends, enemies, love and tempters, though what he truly seeks is a sense of the present and a belief in the future.
In a Sudanese village, Muzamel is born readily cursed by a Dervish prophecy, stating that he will die at the age of 20. Muzamel grows up amongst looks of sympathy that make him feel dead before his time, until Suliman—a cinematographer who was working in the city—returns to the village. Suliman’s old cinema projector offers Muzamel a window overlooking a whole new world. When his 20th birthday arrives, he is faced with a choice between accepting impending death and a bus to the world he is eager to experience.
Synopsis