200 Meters

Ameen Nayfeh's first feature is about two hundred metres between two villages in Palestine. Mustafa and his wife Salwa live that close to each other, with a wall between them, on different sides. Every night he flashes a light from his balcony to say goodnight to his children, and they signal back. Then word comes that his son has had an accident; stopped at the checkpoint over a technicality, Mustafa has to reach the hospital by illegal routes on a journey that runs for many kilometres. The film builds that trip as a road movie, with the people beside him, the tension inside the vehicle and the arbitrary obstacles at every step at its centre. It won the audience award in Venice Days. Who it's for: viewers who want Palestinian cinema and films where daily life intersects with politics. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a many-sided account; the film tells one family's experience.