Motaz Malhees

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.

Three Palestinian siblings attempt to visit their bedridden grandfather who resides on the other side of the separation wall.

After his recovery, middle-aged Hamza has continued a practice he began 20 years ago when he was freed from an Israeli prison: he goes into the woods every day to chase the lion that the locals don’t think exists. Hamza struggles to reach a peaceful place. Despite his wife’s pleadings and the villagers’ contempt, Hamza sits his baits and traps in the forest, hoping to defeat the mysterious threat. He finds refuge in his journey from social rejection and denial. In the woods, Hamza is free to act according to his beliefs, fighting his own battle to heal an open wound – the trauma of losing his childhood friend, and the horrific memories of torture and guilt.

When an American family is invited to spend the weekend at the idyllic country estate of a charming British family they befriended on vacation, what begins as a dream holiday soon warps into a snarled psychological nightmare.