Origin: Palestine | Fiction | Director: Maha Haj | 108 minutes

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Middle-aged, melancholic and married with two kids, Waleed has abandoned a steady job in banking to pursue his dream of becoming a writer. But his novel and his life in the seaside city of Haifa seem to be going nowhere. That’s until he meets Jalal, a fellow Palestinian and the laid-back father of a family that’s just moved in next door. An initially tense meeting develops into a friendship that might just help Waleed get his writing and his life back on track. But Jamal has criminal connections which take both men in dark directions. Haj’s perceptive and wryly humorous screenplay keeps politics simmering in the background as the complicated bond between Waleed and Jalal is put to the ultimate test.

This bittersweet and unpredictable comedy-drama about male friendship by Palestinian filmmaker Maha Haj won Best Screenplay in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2022.

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