Abu Omar

Roy Krispel’s first feature tackles a difficult subject – the repatriation of a dead child – but makes what might have been unbearably anguished a moving plea for more humanity in a world becoming ever more divisive. Up-and-coming Palestinian actor Kais Nashif (most recently seen by Western audiences in Limbo) plays the father Salah set on returning the body of his baby son from a Tel Aviv hospital (where Omar has succumbed to a heart condition) to the family home in a West Bank village. Frustrated by a border closure, he meets Israeli single mother-to-be Miri, who is determined to see father and son safely home. Their odyssey is filled with telling details which touch on many troublesome aspects of life in Israel, but the film is not without humour as the absurdities of the situation also emerge. Ultimately this is Nashif’s film – it’s a heart-wrenching if undemonstrative performance which nonetheless steals every scene.

‘Kais Nashif, who plays the lead in the film, gives an extraordinary performance as a grieving father’ - The Jerusalem Post