Rashid Masharawi is one of the best-known and most versatile of Palestinian filmmakers, and his intimate knowledge of the West Bank and the Occupied Territories is on full display in the fictional Passing Dreams, a closely observed study of ordinary people living the best they can in a very imperfect world. Opening the Cairo Film Festival, where it is part of a larger salute to Palestinian cinema, the story is imbued with human warmth, which brings to mind the sad thought that it takes place before the tragedy in Gaza began.
On a very different note, Masharawi will also present the film From Ground Zero at the festival, which brings together 22 short films on the horrors of the war in Gaza.
Passing Dreams is so thoughtful and laid-back it seems to belong to another epoch in Palestinian history. Perhaps that is the point of this quiet little tale about a 12-year-old boy from a refugee camp who single-mindedly mobilizes his uncle Kamal to retrieve a homing pigeon that has flown home (but where is “home”?) Perhaps it’s all a passing dream, like a joke one character makes about the impossibility of having a free and independent Palestine with its capital in Jerusalem. Or read nostalgically, maybe it chronicles a time that is truly in the past, given the fierce tenacity of the current war’s grip on people in the Occupied Territories.
The gentle open-heartedness of the screenplay convinced multiple countries to join in the coproduction under writer-director-producer Masharawi. There is an aching wistfulness in its undramatized characters who respectively work, study and obstinately cling to their family memories. The lack of dramatic violence earmarks it for audiences with an interest in the region, who are tuned to an engaging, off-beat road movie more in the Kiarostami tradition than the angry militancy of political engagement. Political commentary is certainly present, but it is approached obliquely.
The three main characters – little Sami, Uncle Kamal and his late adolescent daughter Maryam – are Palestinian Christians from Bethlehem, where they ply the tourist trade selling hand-carved crucifixes and battery-operated souvenirs of the Holy Land. The opening shots of a workman delicately sculpting the figure of a suffering Christ with arms outspread, ready to be nailed to a waiting cross, have an odd poignancy, midway between commercialized religion and an allegory of the Palestinian people. In this busy workshop, Kamal is an expert overseer who does quality control and manages deliveries to churches and shops. Memorably played by Ashraf Barhom, whose face is familiar from actioners and epics from Agora to The Kingdom, Kamal has a quick, ironic smile that carries a hidden burden, whose revelation and resolution conclude the story on a note of hope.
Less easy to relate to is the pigeon-obsessed Sami (newcomer Adel Abu Ayyash), who lives with his mom in the Qalandia refugee camp. His father has been languishing for years in an Israeli prison after being accused –unjustly, says the family – of attacking Israeli settlers. Sami is forbidden to visit him and in his childish imagination he plans to send messages to his dad by carrier pigeon. So there is a lot of emotion riding on the bird’s retrieval. What is a little surprising is the boy’s cluelessness around armed soldiers who are sprinkled through the film like a latent threat. Far more streetwise is his best buddy in the camp, a wiry little fellow who is doing his best to become addicted to cigarettes, and who wisely foresees that chasing the pigeon spells trouble. Sami’s obstinate, one-track mind pushes him to make the trip alone, oblivious to the real dangers present in his world.
Without telling his mother, he hops aboard a group cab that takes him to Bethlehem, home of Uncle Kamal and his spunky daughter Maryam (Emilia Al Massou). She is a student of journalism and a more nuanced character than Sami, whose constant indulgence by the adults gets to feel puzzling and even annoying (Maryam rightly calls it out as a form of sexism). And she insists on coming along on their trip to Jerusalem, where Kamal originally bought the pigeon from a cantankerous shopkeeper in the souk. But the bird is not there, and as the shadows lengthen they take off for Haifa on the coast to see if it has returned to its birthplace.
The story’s simplicity gives it a fable-like quality, counteracted somewhat by the strong rhythms of Johanni Curtet’s surprising musical score, which accompanies this typical Mideast story with a bluesy acoustic guitar that conjures up Texas. But all the tech work is highly professional. D.P. Duraid Munajim’s cinematography gives a warm glow to white stone and stucco walls that say so much about history and homeland, while Phil Jandaly’s modern editing tricks punch up the road trip and the ennui of checkpoints.
Director, screenplay, producer: Rashid Mashrawi
Coproducers: Laura Nikolov, Basel Mawlawi, Joakim Rang Strand, Faisal Baltyour, Asma Graimiche
Cast: Ashraf Barhom, Adel Abu Ayyash, Emilia Al Massou, Manal Deeb, Mousa Nofal, Abed Alfattah Abu Srour
Cinematography: Duraid Munajim
Art director: Ala Abu Ghoush
Costume design: Wafa Al Azzeh
Editing: Phil Jandaly
Music: Johanni Curtet
Sound design and editing: Yehya Breshe
Production companies: Cinema Production Center, Coorigines Production, Kinana Films, Film I Skane, Cinewaves, First Poly Production, Palestine TV
World sales: Cinewaves
In Arabic, Hebrew
78 minutes
