200 Meters

200 Meters

2020 · 96 min · AR · 7.1 (29 votes)
Dir. Ameen Nayfeh · Starring Ali Suliman, Anna Unterberger, Motaz Malhees, Mahmoud Abu Eita, Lana Zreik, Nabil Al Raee · Music Faraj Suleiman
Drama

Mustafa and his wife Salwa come from two Palestinian villages that are only 200 meters apart, but separated by the wall. Their unusual living situation is starting to affect their otherwise happy marriage, but the couple does what they can to make it work. Every night, Mustafa flashes a light from his balcony to wish his children on the other side a goodnight, and they signal him back. One day Mustafa gets a call that every parent dreads: his son has been in an accident. He rushes to the checkpoint where he must agonisingly wait in line only to find out there is a problem with his fingerprints and is denied entry. Desperate, Mustafa resorts to hiring a smuggler to bring him across. His once 200-meter journey becomes a 200-kilometer odyssey joined by other travellers determined to cross.

VIBE

This film feels like a suffocating, yet ultimately hopeful, testament to the human spirit. It captures the agonizing frustration of separation and the desperate lengths one will go to for family, all against a backdrop of oppressive borders.

tenseheartbreakingdesperateresilientsteadysocial realismpolitical dramacharacter-drivenseparationfamilybureaucracyhope
▶ Stream on Film Movement Plus, Film Movement Plus Amazon Channel
palestineborderillegal border crossing
MORE LIKE THIS — multi-vector + why, diversified