Four struggling actors retreat to a cabin in the Californian woods to write a screenplay that will make them all stars, but things take a dark turn when their horror story idea starts to come true.

Wild teen Wren trades New Jersey for New York City, where she hopes to join what’s left of punk culture. She hangs out with fellow transplant Paul, but he’s too safe for her tastes — which run to narcissistic rockers. She finds one in Eric, about to cut a record in Los Angeles.

Dancer Elena and sign language interpreter Dovydas meet and form a beautiful bond. As they dive into a new relationship, they must navigate how to build their own kind of intimacy.

Leaving her native village to follow her dream of becoming an actress, Hiam Abbass also left behind her mother, grandmother and seven sisters. Thirty years later, her filmmaker daughter Lina returns with her to journey through the vanished places among the scattered memories of four generations of daring Palestinian women.

Selected Awards:

• Grierson Award for Documentary Film, London Film Festival, UK, 2023.
• Best Documentary Award, Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival, France, 2023.
• Prix du Jury, Marrakech International Film Festival, Morocco, 2023.

Despite the everyday banality of growing old, Hiam Jarjoura (85), an amusingly cynical lady from Nazareth who has every reason to despise the world as experienced today, manages to rule over her entire world from a single old notebook, a CCTV, and a daily meal she cooks for her beloved son, Mubada (55).

Awards:

• Best Debut Film & Best Cinematography, Doc Aviv Festival, Israel, 2023.