Passport Wedding

Hind Hamed proves to be a compelling focus of Abdallah Al-Ziyadi’s Passport Wedding.

She plays Hajar , a mother desperate to do right by her teenage daughter, Rawa (Hneed Azzam), regardless of the limitations that may be placed on their life. Al-Ziyadi’s film follows Hajar over the course of several days as she attempts to drum up enough cash to buy her daughter a passport – a woman trapped by circumstance who insists the next generation won’t be. It’s an intimate and moving portrait of a mother’s silent sacrifice.

That said, this is evidently a film concerned with Hajar’s plight, not just regarding her daughter’s travel abroad, but the more general socioeconomic realities she faces. She regularly has to explain that it has been a difficult few months – hence needing to borrow money to make ends meat. The landlord is heard on the phone, reminding her that rent is past due. In other scenes, she goes to collect aid packages and is, on occasion, forced to sell the contents. The film plays these things as commonplace – neither this moment, nor Hajar’s predicament, are exceptional. She and her neighbours are constantly navigating such precarity.

Hussein Qadan’s handheld camerawork gives the world Hajar inhabits a sense of verisimilitude, as it hovers near her like a documentarian’s lens, but also a persistent intimacy of experience. As the camera roves alongside her, it seems to become caught up in the motion of the situation, following the ebb and flow of Hajar’s journey and emotions. Hamed presents these impeccably, moving from whoops jubilation to tears of distress, but Passport Wedding never wavers from presenting Hajar’s dignity and determination.

Director, writer: Abdallah Al-Ziyadi
Cast: Hind Hamed, Hneed Azzam, Serene Huleileh, Selam Al-awadi
Producer: Dana Mar’ie
Cinematography: Hussein Qadan
Editing: Ahmad Alkhlifat
Sound: Ahmad Alkhlifat, Hayan Alyouseef
Production design: Hadeel Abu Shuqair
Production companies: Moonstone Productions, Fluid Productions (Jordan)
Venue: Amman Film Festival (Arab Short Film Competition)
In Arabic
17 minutes

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