Light
Ajyal Competition
Yassmina Karajah / Short Narrative / Canada, Jordan, Lebanon / 2014 / 13 min / Colour / DCP2K
In Arabic, English / Arabic, English subtitles
Interests: Drama, Religion, Immigration, Family, Identity
Qatar Premiere
Synopsis
Overwhelmed by anguish and far from the comforts of family, Omar, a young Lebanese man, speaks via cellphone from a Canadian hospital with his pleading mother, who gently tells him how to go about performing the Islamic pre-burial rituals. Quietly devastating, ‘Light’ sidesteps melodrama, relying on tight close-ups, stilted conversations and Omar’s incomplete actions to illustrate his feelings of paralysis. Ahmed Muslimani provides a finely nuanced performance that conveys Omar’s desperation, fear and loneliness, and lays bare a grief so unbearable it defies his comprehension.
Credits
- Director
- Yassmina Karajah
- Screenwriter
- Yassmina Karajah
- Producer
- David Findlay, Jenna Hambrook
- Editor
- Jenna Hambrook
- Cinematographer
- Benjamin Houde-Hostland
- Cast
- Ahmed Muslimani, Souad Karim