Nadia Hassan

# Kembali Kepada Fitrah The story follows a single mother named Latifah who always hopes for the presence of her stepchildren every time Hari Raya arrives. Four stepchildren namely Hisyam, Juita, Farina and Amri, after the death of her husband, have grown up and lived their own lives. Her waiting continues for 10 years but goes unfulfilled. She remains undeterred and hopes that her wish becomes reality. Her stepchildren have ignored her all this time because they heard false stories. The return of her eldest stepchild, Hisyam, meets with her and successfully heals the longing that has been buried after so long without meeting. Hisyam is shocked after hearing stories from Aunt Enon that for 10 years his younger siblings have not returned to the village to visit their mother who is busy preparing for Hari Raya to welcome them. Hisyam goes to Kuala Lumpur to meet his three siblings and asks them to celebrate Hari Raya again together with their mother like they once did.

Hayam, an unmarried twenty-year-old girl, passes away, and her brothers, Zaher and Murad, discover love bites on her neck and chest just before the body washing, which hinders the completion of the washing for fear of scandal.

In impoverished Baghdad under Saddam's dictatorship, 16-year-old Amal hopes to regain her social status at school by volunteering to find a book as a class gift for the departing literature teacher. Meanwhile, her emotionally fragile little brother becomes obsessed with the notion that a visiting uncle from America--whom he confuses with Santa Claus--will bring him toys. Ashamed never to have been able to give his son a toy, the child's father sells some more prized family possessions and buys a model car for him.

In a village outside of Beirut, amidst scrap metal, chickens and goats, the quiet Fouad runs a mechanic’s garage with a detached but soothing presence. His customers, both old and young, are invited to sit and drink coffee while they wait for their vehicles to be repaired. In these moments of stillness, the garage becomes a haven for people to express their growing despair amidst the economic collapse that surrounds them. No jobs. Sleepless nights. The burden of school tuition. No one is safe. As the darkness closes in, Fouad must undertake a deeply symbolic, transcendent journey through his own psyche: a search for the other side.

The harvest is over, but a particularly severe drought is causing water problems in the village. Every season, a play is performed in the village, and this year's play is entitled ‘Departures’.