Headstrong and stubborn, Khaled (Muhammad Gazawi) is determined to see the sandy beaches of Tel Aviv, just 60 km from the occupied West Bank village where he lives with his grandmother and siblings. When he is denied entry at a checkpoint with his classmates, he takes matters into his own hands, slipping across the border under the cover of night through a tunnel with a group of unpermitted day laborers. On the other side, his wide-eyed innocence amplifies the contrast between two normalized realities, revealing a freedom of movement he has never known, and the injustice embedded in that divide.
Written and directed by Shai Carmeli-Pollak (Bilin My Love, SFJFF 2008) and produced by Bahr Agbariya (Mediterranean Fever, SFJFF 2024), the Arabic-language drama is a collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers. Its Best Picture win at the 2025 Ophir Awards sparked backlash from Israeli government officials, underscoring the film’s power as an examination about restriction and the realities of life under occupation. –Dominique Oneil
“Made as a collaboration between Jewish and Palestinian Israelis, the film becomes a deeply humanist tale about borders, permits, the interdependent economies of two neighbors and the power of the dominant language.” Variety
“[T]he film places Palestinian experiences at the center and thus provides an unusual experience for Israeli Jews, who rarely, if ever, have the opportunity to see our cities and ourselves through the eyes of a Palestinian child and his father.” The Jewish Independent
“The film is a patient, morally expansive work that places the simplicity of a child’s quest into the fraught terrain of occupation, repression, and (not) belonging.” Cineccentric