Alam, The Flag علم
110 minutes
Firas Khoury
Feature Fiction
2022 - France, Palestine, Tunisia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
Arabic, Hebrew with English subtitles
Despite being part of a young generation of Palestinians whose families chose to stay and challenge the Israeli state after Al-Nakba, 17-year-old Tamer and his friends are just like any other group of teenage boys. They clumsily search for drugs, flirt with girls, play video games, and slack off at school. However, when an intriguing new student named Maysaa’ joins their class Tamer immediately falls for her and is drawn into her political activism. Together, they join fellow classmates in an operation to covertly raise the Palestinian flag at their school and peacefully disrupt the local celebrations planned for Israel’s Independence Day – otherwise known to Palestinians as a day of mourning and memorialization of their ethnic cleansing 70 years prior. Unsure of his own political convictions, Tamer must quickly determine what matters to him and what price he is willing to pay for freedom.
A skillful examination of the fraught political awakening young Palestinians are forced to undergo, this TIFF World premiere is a striking debut feature film from Firas Khoury, that marries conversations around nationalism and iconography with the universal themes of growing up.
Featured Cast
Mahmood Bakri
Sereen Khass
Mohammad Karaki
Muhammad Abed Elrahman
Ahmad Zaghmouri
Saleh Bakri
Amer Hlehel
Original Score
Faraj Suleiman
Past Festivals
WORLD PREMIERE AT VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
Malmo Arab Film Festival
Awards
Toronto International Film Festival (Contemporary World Cinema, TIFF Next Wave Selects), Canada Rome Film Festival (International Competition), Italy
Cairo International Film Festival (International
