Mohamed Dhrif

Extremism slices through a Tunisian family with the realization that their teenage son has become an ISIS fighter.

Dawn is breaking, a man is reading a letter, a fishing boat comes in from the open sea. A woman searches for a face in a crowded street. A woman gathers clothes, a girl looks for a response. An empty chair. The soft murmur of the waves.

In the midst of the war in Gaza during the Second Intifada in 2003, two 12-year-old boys, one Palestinian and one Israeli, along with a former surfing champion, form a friendship united by the love of water and learn from each other.

In the ensuing days before his wedding bridegroom Hachemi faces both the anxieties of the future and the shadows of the past. His best friend, Farfat, is the topic of street graffiti and local gossip, which calls his manhood into question. This ripples out to affect Hachemi for, unbeknownst to anyone, as apprenticed youths they were molested by Ameur, the local carpenter. Farfat is banished from his father's home and the shared secret between the two friends threatens to undo more than just the wedding, but their very lives.