Alam
Despite being part of a young generation of Palestinian Arabs 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 a beautiful new student named Maysaa’ joins their class Tamer immediately falls for her and, by association, is drawn into her political activism. Together they join fellow classmate, Safwat, in an operation to covertly raise the Palestinian flag and peacefully disrupt the local celebrations planned for Israel’s Independence Day – otherwise known to Palestinians as a day of mourning and memorialization for their displacement 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 “perfectly captures teenage fearlessness and bravado along with a certain cluelessness about how the real-world works” (Variety). A striking debut feature film from Firas Khoury, ALAM marries conversations around nationalism and iconography with the universal themes of growing up.
"Filmed before the Israel-Hamas war (2022), this is a beautifully told story, though the political conflict is always there, this is a coming-of-age story...This film is highly recommended for high school through college, as well as a general audience. Though a work of fiction, the story provides an excellent into discussion about the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Having a story told through the eyes of young people is a great way to engage students in history and asks them to think critically about the choices we all have to make." - EMRO
Cast
- Mahmoud Bakri
- Sereen Khass
- Saleh Bakri
- Mohammad Karaki
DVD Features
Sound: 5.1 Surround & 2.0 Stereo
Discs: 1
- "Khoury’s convincing and engaging screenplay perfectly captures teenage fearlessness and bravado along with a certain cluelessness about how the real world works. This intelligent, sensitive treatment of the rarely seen, everyday lives of young Palestinian citizens of Israel marks tyro feature writer-director Firas Khoury as a talent to watch...."
- "One of the Best Films of the Year (So Far). The conversations around Palestine and Israel often don’t leave much room for nuance, but Firaz Khoury’s moving coming-of-age film offers a corrective. This is a marvelous, mesmerizing film that offers no easy answers. "
- "Khoury’s profoundly moving and alarming film is focused on young people growing into adult identities in a place and time full of dangerous contradictions. Its timeliness cannot be ignored."
- "Timely and incredibly gutting, “Alam,” set in a Palestinian village under Israeli occupation, offers a beautifully etched portrait of what it’s like to grow up amid the debris of your ancestor’s dreams."
- "This directorial debut which looks at a new third generation of Palestinians living in Israel is a fascinating take on a group of young people whose future is so constrained it almost compresses the screen."
- "...crackles with the energy of both the insouciance of teenage rebellion and hedonism, and the awakening of political activism."
- "ALAM is a modern decolonial masterpiece that should be seen by all, especially now. There are few films that aren’t documentaries that communicate what the Palestinian Arabs must live under."
- "...ALAM stimulates audiences to ponder the ever-changing meaning of iconographies and how, similarly, histories are rewritten as generations pass."
- "Alam is an enjoyable viewing experience, which many films dealing with politics are not. I credit the filmmaker for the humanity that he’s instilled into the picture."
- "Khoury carefully portrays the gutsy and, at times, naive drive of a youth awakened by the politics of identity, nationalism and systemic oppression."
- "...An important title, both for the presentation of an aspect of Palestinian life rarely shown in cinema, and for the way it implements the coming-of-age aspect of the narrative in order to do so."
- "Khoury’s light touch with a serious-minded script keeps the stakes low but intensely personal in what is essentially a story of a kid who risks his scholastic career, his good relations with his family and his “future” to impress a girl. And then Khoury lets us see that the stakes are indeed high, that everything Maysaá, Safwat and Adel is saying is true and that speaking out against injustice is a civic duty, even in places where it isn’t a civil right."
Gallery
Awards & Recognition
Golden Pyramid
Cairo Int'l. Film Festival
Audience Award
Cairo Int'l. Film Festival
Best Film
Rome Film Festival
Best Youth Film
Asia Pacific Screen Awards
Toronto Int'l. Film Festival
Santa Barbara Int. Film Festival
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