L'Anniversaire de Leïla

I had the privilege of watching the world premiere of this Palestinian movie (English title - Laila's Birthday) at the Toronto International Film Festival yesterday. It is filmed in Ramallah and follows the life of one father in a war-torn country and his efforts to make his daughter's birthday a special one.

The director has intricately inter-weaved the humorous situation of the main character with the obvious tragedy that's a part of everyday life in Palestine, and created a movie that touches everyone, no matter where you're from. It is by no-means a serious movie nor a depressing one - it just teaches you to take life as it comes.

It's a must-watch for people who are willing to explore movies beyond Hollywood made by people from different cultures, and see what they have to offer to the world of films. Thank you, TIFF for bringing this beautiful film to me.

10/10 to Rashid for his moving film, Mohammed Bakri for his BRILLIANT acting, and TIFF for great taste!

With a running time of just sixty-nine minutes, "Laila's Birthday" chronicles a day in the life of a Palestinian cab driver (a day that also happens to be his daughter's seventh birthday). Abu Laila is actually a former judge who, due to budget cuts, is now forced to drive a taxi, owned by his brother-in-law, to support his wife and child. The "plot" of the movie consists of little more than a series of deliberately undramatic and wryly humorous vignettes revolving around Abu and the cross section of humanity that passes through his cab that day. His passengers include a just-paroled ex-con, an amorous young couple looking for a place to be alone, a woman on her way to the cemetery and the hospital, and another woman whose husband has just been killed in a car bombing.

As conceived by writer/director Rashid Masharawi and embodied by the finely stoic and deadpan actor, Mohammed Bakri, Abu is remarkably reticent for a central character - one who rarely articulates his thoughts about the people and events taking place around him. Yet, one senses in the man an undercurrent of frustration arising from having to live in an occupied territory – the West Bank city of Ramallah – a frustration that Abu finally gives vent to in the closing moments of the story. Otherwise, the movie doesn't push its political points and doesn't go for grand dramatic gestures and themes. It merely observes daily life as this one man witnesses it, finding humor in some of the unlikeliest of places.

Despite the lack of drama in the situations themselves, there's something strangely hypnotic in Abu's continual cruising through the city and around the countryside, and in his interactions with the various people who come his way.

Palestinian director Rashid Mashrawi's film Laila's birthday is a film about the harsh realities of occupied Palestine.The theme of his film concerns emotional upheavals of ordinary people who are nothing but ordinary citizens of a nation which is continually at war.They are troubled in their daily existence by their own intricate idiosyncrasies.We can all easily relate to the pains of our film's protagonist, a taxi driver with his own set of principles who worked as a judge in the past. It is only under dire situations that a judge would be compelled to earn living as a cab driver.The mood of the film is both sombre as well as comic. This is a film for all people with families and children as its teaches values which are important for the society as a whole. Laila's birthday can be summarized as a funny chaotic day in the life of a simple minded taxi driver. It is a feel good film whose end can be easily predicted. A thing which might irk certain sections of viewers involves silly Israel bashing by Rashid Mashrawi as he indulges in it every now and then.