MPM Premium has picked up Firas Khoury’s coming-of-age drama “Alam,” ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
The film centers on Tamer, a Palestinian teenager living in Israel. He and his friends lead a typical high-school student’s life until the arrival of the beautiful Maysaa’. To impress her, Tamer agrees to take part in a mysterious flag operation on the eve of Israel’s Independence Day, which is a day of mourning for Palestinians.
Toronto’s Nataleah Hunter-Young said of the film: “A fluid and absorbing feature debut from Firas Khoury, ‘Alam’ is a coming-of-age drama full of contemporary urgency. Skilfully pointing out the unsubtle mechanisms of nationalism, Khoury draws us through the maze of control and contradiction that follows the forced forgetting of history.”
Khoury commented: “The film is an attempt to bring into light the circumstances in which the Palestinian youth is forced to develop, the sharp existential contradictions they are subjected to at a young age. In that sense, ‘Alam’ is a story of a collective, embodied in the life of a young man (Tamer), who wishes to step out of the safe zone of passive fear into the light of freedom. But as always, freedom does not come without sacrifice. Tamer will know freedom only if he is willing to pay the price.”
The film is produced by MPM Film, Paprika Films, Philistine Films, Red Sea Film Festival Foundation, Metafora Productions and Lacydon Bay Productions.