In this evocative mood piece, Munir (Georges Khabbaz) is a middle-aged Syrian writer in exile in Germany. Going through an existential crisis, he takes himself up to one of the Halligan islands in the North Sea, a sparsely populated place of severe beauty, prone to frequent flooding. Although they initially rub each other the wrong way, a widow, Valeska (Hanna Schygulla) offers him a room and kindness. It’s just about enough to keep him from giving in to despair.
Writer-director Ameer Fakher Eldin (born in Kiev to exiled Syrian-Palestinian parents) has hit on a remarkable setting for his bleak meditation on displacement and depression; this is a film which seems almost torn from its windswept landscape. Granted, not much happens and still less is said, yet a man’s life hangs in the balance, and we are compelled to stay by his side.
[A] haunting meditation on exile… It’s elegantly crafted and has a poetic intensity that builds in rewarding ways.
David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
Ameer Fakher Eldin
Georges Khabbaz, Hanna Schygulla, Ali Suliman, Sibel Kekilli, Tom Wlaschiha, Nidal Al Achkar
Germany/Canada
2025
In German and Arabic with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Friday January 16
Monday January 19
Tuesday January 20
Thursday January 22
Friday January 23
Saturday January 24
First Look Fridays: $10 Tickets
Enjoy $10 tickets at this film’s first Friday matinee screening.
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Credits
Screenwriter
Ameer Fakher Eldin
Cinematography
Ronald Plante
Original Music
Suad Bushnaq
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