MY WAY
SHOWTIME
Other movies
SONGS OF ADAM
Director: Oday Rasheed
The year is 1946. Under the strict orders of their father, Adam drags his younger brother Ali to witness their grandfather's corpse get washed before burial. Their cousin Iman, their constant playmate, is excluded from the ritual because she is a girl. The sight of the corpse has a profound effect on Adam; he announces that he doesn’t want to grow up and, from that moment on, he stops aging. As the years pass, the villagers come to believe Adam is cursed, while his brother, grappling with his own aging, feels Adam should be institutionalized. Only Iman and Anki, a shepherd and Adam’s lifelong best friend, see his condition as a blessing, preserving in him the pure, innocent goodness of a child. A haunting and beautiful story set against the oases and dust storms of Iraq.
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Palestinian cousins Chatila and Reda have fled a Lebanese refugee camp for Athens. Their sights are set on Germany but, with no money or passports, they are stuck in an underground limbo living off scams and petty crime. For Chatila, who has discovered a ruthless streak, anything is justified – even ripping off their fellow refugees – but Reda hates what he has become, a shame he smothers with drugs, squandering the little money they have. Things look up, however, when they meet Malek: a young boy who says his aunt will send him money to bring him to Italy. Working in a style between documentary and fiction, director Mehdi Fleifel brings home the reality of desperation with poignancy and warmth.