A Drowning Man

In "A drowning man", Mahdi Fleifel shows a day in the life of a Palestinian immigrant living in Greece. The action starts with the basic human needs, the character just wants to get some money to eat and buy cigarettes. Until he gets it, the director builds a tale of desperation but without falling on a miserabilist nor melodramatic perspective. It's a great short to watch another way of portraying immigration, different from the one shown by big media.

"A Drowning Man" is one of the last shorts made by prolific Dubai filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel, and the one that certainly proves that he is more than ready to take the leap towards his first feature.

The subject is poignant -a day in the life of a refugee in Athens who navigates public spaces in search of food and cigarettes- and couldn't be more relevant, regarding the refugee crisis that Europe is living nowadays.

Fleifel shots the main character always on the move, through a restless but controlled camera work that allows the viewer to get into the atmosphere and timing, and to really feel what he is striving for: not only cigarettes but a real escape to the oppressive situation.

Finally, "A Drowning Man" remains as the depiction of a brief but powerful slice of life, and also as a powerful depiction of dignity versus abuse in the context of an urgent situation.

We are the team of the Internacional Film Festival of Bilbao "Cine Invisible" and we are very glad to have this short film within our film election for the festival. The story about the refugee in Athens make you feel the problem and the situation very intensly. There are great pictures among the film and the quality is high. These type of creations could make people change their mind and realise how the world in going on like.

This is one of the best angles I've seen on the global refugee crisis. Watch it, it's 15 minutes but its impact is stronger than many feature length films.

Even though the story focuses in Athenas - Greece, this short reflects the sadly situation of refugees in general. It captivates you from the beginning and it makes empathize with the protagonist, in his situation and desperate way to survive. The way the cinematographic language is used, makes you feel the intensity of this conflict, but also it allows you to know him on a deeper level without having to say anything, or learning about him through any specific dialogues. It is completely visual, and we don't need anymore information further than these pure images. That's the way that truly cinema is really done, with a little spice of reality shown to makes us feel, and think about this problems that matters and are still present all over the world. So, without saying any further, we are thrill to having this short soon in Latin's America most important short festival: SHORTS MÉXICO. 10/10