Event

PATOIS 2024: Alam & Zoo

Alam (2022) (106 minutes)
Despite being part of a young generation of Palestinians whose families chose to stay and challenge the Israeli state after Al-Nakba, 17-year-old Tamer and his friends are just like any other group of teenage boys. They clumsily search for drugs, flirt with girls, play video games, and slack off at school. However, when a beautiful new student named Maysaa joins their class Tamer immediately falls for her and, by association, is drawn into her political activism. Together they join fellow classmate, Safwat, in an operation to covertly raise the Palestinian flag and peacefully disrupt the local celebrations planned for Israels Independence Day otherwise known to Palestinians as a day of mourning and memorialization for their displacement 70 years prior. Unsure of his own political convictions, Tamer must quickly determine what matters to him and what price he is willing to pay for freedom.

A skillful examination of the fraught political awakening young Palestinians are forced to undergo, this TIFF World premiere perfectly captures teenage fearlessness and bravado along with a certain cluelessness about how the real-world works (Variety). An striking debut feature film from Firas Khoury, ALAM marries conversations around nationalism and iconography with the universal themes of growing up.

Director: Firas Khoury
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Sereen Khass, Saleh Bakri, and Mohammad Karaki

ZOO (2022) (8 minutes) (animated)
As Sami is wandering through the worst zoo in the world while looking for his ball, he crosses paths with a little tiger named Laziz, which follows him on his quest to find a safe place to play.
Against all odds, they become friends. But the remnants of war harbor danger.

Director: Tariq Rimawi