SUNDAY, MARCH 24 / 7:00 PM / OTTAWA ART GALLERY

Program: We Would Be Freer, A Happy Day

Reception: 9:00 PM

SHORT FILM \

We Would Be Freer

بنكون اكتر احرار

2023 / 9 minutes / Ottawa
Director: Rana Nazzal Hamadeh
Languages: English, Arabic

On different sides of the world, two communities find connection through their use of sumac. Mimicking the progression of the plant’s flowers from yellow to green to red, We Would Be Freer is a cyclical reflection on connection to land, sustainability, and wild plants.

FEATURE \

A Happy Day

2023 / 113 minutes / Norway, Denmark
Director: Hisham Zaman
Writer: Hisham Zaman
Languages: Norwegian, Sámi
Subtitles: English

migration \ hope \ reindeer

Drawing from his own experience as a refugee from Iraqi Kurdistan, writer-director Hisham Zanam’s third feature film is a perceptive dramedy about what it means to be stranded and stateless. Set in a wintry remote mountainous region of northern Norway in a centre for young asylum seekers, A Happy Day revolves around three friends who yearn for escape to a new and safe life. Hamid, Aras, and Ismail are friends with big dreams about the future beyond their current isolated experience. Attempts at escape are always foiled by the bemused local police, and so they hang out, waiting to turn 18 and then be processed for deportation. Things in this absurdist limbo change quickly, however, with the arrival of a rebellious young woman named Aida. Her arrival sparks the poetic soul of Hamid and they begin a relationship that will alter the trio of friends’ master plan for escape. By turns funny and poignant, quirky and eccentric, A Happy Day is an appealing combination of wry absurdism, magic realism, and compassionate humanism featuring an incredibly talented ensemble cast of young performers.  

- Tom McSorley