Mohammad Nizar

One of the first Jordanian films to premiere at Cannes, Faris Alrjoob’s beguiling short languidly drifts on the shifting tides of love and loss. At once eerie and sensuously pleasurable, sun-drenched frames are imprinted with the specter of grief, made achingly tangible on sumptuous 16mm film stock.

A Jordanian man must find a way to tell his childhood friend and first love the truth about what happened twenty years ago – when a single moment changed both of their lives. Rooted in love and framed within a queer, Arab lens, this award-winning 16-minute short from director Caitlin French McLeod grapples with imposed narratives and the ways in which we come to embrace our true selves.