In the early 80s, Sero, a Kurdish boy, enrolls in school for the first time in an Arab border community in Syria. A new teacher has been employed by the school with the intention of turning the Kurdish children into staunch Pan-Arabic comrades. In an attempt to let paradise come to earth, he uses the rod to restrict the use of the Kurdish language, orders the reverence of Assad and preaches hatred towards their Zionist enemies, the Jews. Young Sero is angry and perplexed by the lessons because his long-time neighbours are a Jewish family. Sero engages in risky pranks with his friends and fantasizes about owning a television so that one day he can watch as many cartoons as he pleases. But he also observes how the growing nationalism, tyranny and violence around him is crushing the adults in his community and driving a wedge between long-established friendships. Inspired by the memories of the director, the film is a bittersweet coming-of-age story, infused with humour and sadness.
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Festival Appearances
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2022
Shanghai International Film Festival 2021
Red Sea International Film Festival 2021 – Winner Best Feature Film
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Mano Khalil
Kurdish-Syrian filmmaker Mano Khalil was born in 1964. He studied history and law at Damascus University and film direction in the former Czechoslovakia.
From 1990 to 1995, he worked as an independent director for Czechoslovakian and later Slovakian Television. Since 1996, he has lived in Switzerland, where he founded Frame Film. Mano’s documentary and fiction shorts include My God (1990), Kino-ocko (1995), David the Tolhildan (2007) and Our Garden of Eden (2010). He also directed the feature documentary, The Beekeeper (2013), and the feature narrative, The Swallow (2016), both of which screened at DIFF.
Sun, 6 Nov | 12:40 pm | Picture Time 1