Our Males and Females
2023 · 11m · Jordan
Directed by Ahmad Alyaseer
Genres: drama
Tones: melancholic, tender, tense
A father and mother must wash and shroud their deceased transgender daughter according to Islamic burial tradition, but when no one in the community will perform the ritual, the father is forced to confront how far he will go for his child. The film unfolds as a ticking-clock drama set almost entirely in the room where the body lies.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Real-time moral crisis built from Islamic burial ritual itself rather than draped on top of one — that's a structurally serious idea. Private YouTube link is a kick in the shins, though.
Alyaseer turning the Ghusl Mayyit washing rite into a real-time moral crisis around a transgender daughter's burial — this is Cristian Mungiu's mode of ritual-as-dramatic-engine, and the premise is one of the year's most consequential. Regrettable that the YouTube link is private.
Page is private so I can't verify execution, but using the Ghusl Mayyit rite's strict gender rules as the actual engine of dramatic tension — making ritual itself the antagonist rather than the backdrop — is a sharp structural choice for an 11-minute one-room ticking-clock. Premise is rigorous.
Reviews
The film creates an intimate atmosphere, as well as a space within which to consider, closely and personally, the complexities and failures of day-to-day life.
An incredibly challenging, thought-provoking, rawly unflinching Oscar qualifying short film — not anti-faith, anti HATE.
Festivals
- Slamdance Film Festival 2023
- Nashville International Film Festival 2023, Best Narrative Short
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2023
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2023
- Dallas International Film Festival 2023, Special Jury Prize, Audience Award
- Regard International Short Film Festival 2023
- Oldenburg International Film Festival 2023