Reviewed by RaeAnne Marsh
(from the 2008 Middle East International Film Festival)

Director/Writer: Rashid Masharawi
Starring: Mohammad Bakri, Areen Omari, Nour Zoubi

Even if you only dimly follow the news, you know there's strife in the Middle East. With all the arguments about who's right and who's wrong, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that there are people trying to live a normal life - simply, earn a living and enjoy the small, family celebrations.

"Despite all the differences we have, we have to give hope and thought to the future, and this is Laila's Birthday," writer/director Rashid Masharawi told his international audience at the 2008 MEIFF.

Carried by a sterling performance by Mohammad Bakri (whose distinguished filmography includes numerous "Best Actor" awards from film festivals throughout Europe and the Middle East), the film chronicles a day of "normal" life in occupied Palestine, but as Masharawi points out, "it could be any occupation." Bureaucratic roadblocks and physical road hazards provide humor and angst, but it's the prosaic interactions between husband and wife, father and daughter, friend and friend that draw the audience into the story and a connection with the main character.

Abu Laila starts the day with a kiss from his wife and a hug from his daughter, and goes forth to earn a day's living driving a taxi for which he seems oddly unsuited. The reason for that awkwardness is disclosed in due course, as he stops in at the Ministry to check on the status of his application for a position as judge - managing to hold onto his dignity against the mockery of yet another newly assigned bureaucrat as he explains he is an out-of-work judge and has only borrowed his brother-in-law's taxi while waiting for the promised re-appointment.

With this posited, the story can now unfold in logical sequence - giving greater credence to why this taxi driver would be so diligent about returning a cell phone his first fare had left in the car. That quest moves forward, taking Abu Laila off the course he'd initially charted for this particular day, which was to come home at its end with a gift and a cake to celebrate his daughter's seventh birthday.

Political statement may be inferred by the film's setting, with a military presence more alluded to than interacted with ("I don't go to the checkpoints," Abu Laila tells his fares; nor does he accept fares who carry guns), although one of the day's chains of events is set in motion by a bomb explosion.

Dignified, indeed almost stoic, against the increasing madness around him, Abu Laila erupts once to the unceasing provocation, then cocoons himself again. The character's one outburst derives additional force, focusing the audience's attention through the contrast to his usual demeanor.

Outstanding cinematography brings the audience a personal connection to the scene's setting - from the broad views of street bazaars to the mom-and-pop businesses. "We interacted with reality as we made the film, collecting pieces of life," explained Masharawi. But the story is the people and the universal hunger to live a normal life. -MPM

Laila's Birthday earned Rashid Masharawi, as the film's screenwriter, the Black Pearl Award for Best Artistic Contribution at the 2008 Middle East International Film Festival.

Photos courtesy of the Middle East International Film Festival. Top: Laila with her father in the taxi he drives.