Rebecca Esmeralda Telhami

Mustafa and his wife Salwa come from two Palestinian villages that are only 200 meters apart, but separated by the wall. Their unusual living situation is starting to affect their otherwise happy marriage, but the couple does what they can to make it work. Every night, Mustafa flashes a light from his balcony to wish his children on the other side a goodnight, and they signal him back. One day Mustafa gets a call that every parent dreads: his son has been in an accident. He rushes to the checkpoint where he must agonisingly wait in line only to find out there is a problem with his fingerprints and is denied entry. Desperate, Mustafa resorts to hiring a smuggler to bring him across. His once 200-meter journey becomes a 200-kilometer odyssey joined by other travellers determined to cross.

In Jerusalem, Kamal, a 60-year-old Palestinian man, is ordered by an Israeli court to pay a large social security debt allegedly owed by his son Wael. But Wael drowned in the Red Sea decades ago. When no official record of his death can be found, Kamal follows the only remaining lead to uncover what happened to his son.

In an unexpected series of events, Fadia, a college student, becomes the center of unwanted attention when a video featuring her at a party spreads on the internet. This leads to a grim outcome as her own village calls for her harsh punishment, all in the name of family honor. This shocking decision forces Fadia's three brothers into a moral quandary as they grapple with feelings of guilt and power after committing the horrifying act of burying their sister alive.

Amal (Hope) is a film co-directed by Arab and Jewish filmmakers and inspired by true events. Amal is a mother who sets out to rescue her son Samer from his preordained fate. When her son is involved with a shooting incident in the village, Amal acknowledges that if the warring clan is not stopped, her son will become the next victim. She fights with all her might for a “Sulha” (reconciliation). But the threat of chaos looms large, and Amal faces powerful forces that tear her apart and engulf the entire village. In the end, fate proves stronger, and Amal is swept into the bloodshed she has fought so hard to prevent.

The affair of a married Palestinian man and a married Israeli woman in Jerusalem takes a dangerous political dimension when they are spotted in the wrong place at the wrong time, leaving them to deal with more than their broken marriages.