Vox Populi
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Video: Faraway
‘The film follows the passing of seasons in the life of Omar Al Shakra, a young Arab man living in Montreal, after he’s cast aside by his family’s older generation following a difficult conversation about his homosexuality. Directed by the Montreal-based Canadian Egyptian filmmaker Aziz Zoromba, the short documentary tracks Al Shakra’s life in the months that follow as he embraces his queerness, even as close family members, including his mother, ostracize him for it,” writes Olivia Hains of this lyrical film of a young man staying true to his identity.
Premiering at Sundance, Faraway was the Vimeo Staff Pick for the best film of 2020:
“It’s only human to empathize with Faraway, which follows a queer Arab man trying to regain connection with the family that ostracized him. Yet director Aziz Zoromba completely cuts the distance between audience and subject. The static framing and close-ups — across a stretch of time, no less — force us to experience this longing as it registers for our protagonist, while he seeks
reconnection from far away.”
Director: Aziz Zoromba
Running time: 18 mintues
Email subscribers may click on the title of this post to watch the film.
Vox Populi 
Layers, yes: there is this multi-layered geomorphology of yearning, fear, worry, silences, pain, and love underneath it all, understated and nuanced, the way it would actually unfold between real people who are both familiar and yet foreign to one another – trying to find a language to reach a place of comfort in their movement toward one another . . .
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Well-said, Dinah. Thank you for your insightful responses to the poems and films appearing in VP.
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Those languages mingling into each other as the seasons pass and he never ceases to year for his mother… Such yearning and loneliness, right?
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Yes, this film has layers of experience; yearning, loneliness, courage…
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