‘Passing Dreams’: Cairo Review

Dir/scr: Rashid Masharawi. Palestine/France/Sweden. 2024. 80mins

While any Palestinian production is noteworthy in the current conflicts, Passing Dreams is all the more striking for its sunny aspect and writer-director Rashid Masharawi’s decision to favour hope over despair. The story of a boy’s search for his missing homing pigeon blossoms into an endearing road movie that also serves as a celebration of resilience. The film’s unexpected positivity should propel it through the festival circuit after a world premiere opening night screening at Cairo International Film Festival.

Evokes the cinema of Abbas Kiarostami

Masharawi (Ticket To Jerusalem, Laila’s Birthday, etc) was born in Gaza and raised in a refugee camp. In Passing Dreams, he draws on that heritage for central character Sami (Adel Abu Ayyash), a 12 year-old boy who lives in the Qalandia refugee camp in East Jerusalem with his mother. In just two weeks, the gift of a homing pigeon has become the centre of his world. Now, the bird has not returned for three days and Sami is determined to find it.

His first destination is Bethlehem where his uncle Kamal (Ashraf Barhom) runs a gift shop and manages a business manufacturing and selling tourist souvenirs. Sami’s journey then continues in partnership with Kamal and the latter’s daughter Miriam (Emilia Massou), an aspiring reporter. They journey on to Haifa, assuming the bird has returned to its original owner. 

Masharawi’s previous films have emphasised solidarity and tolerance, seeking to showcase what people have in common rather than what divides them. Passing Dreams offers a vision of how everyday life continues regardless of what may be happening elsewhere. There are street markets in full flow, tourists visiting, dubious salesmen offering top quality perfumes at bargain prices.

A journey that begins in a people carrier continues in a camper van driven by Kamal. Against the odds, Masharawi was able to film on locations in the West Bank and beyond, adding to the film’s authenticity. The winding roads, proximity to strangers, random conversations and life in transit all combine to evoke the cinema of Abbas Kiarostami. Masharawi keeps the quest involving and manages to pack a good deal into a brief running time, unravelling aspects of Sami’s family history including the reasons behind his father’s ongoing incarceration and an explanation for the estrangement between Kamal and Sami’s mother.

The director accentuates the positives, but doesn’t shy away from the underlying realities of being Palestinians. The backdrop to everything that happens is conveyed in the endless checkpoints, extensive searches, walled areas and armed soldiers patrolling the streets. It is a reality that appears to be accepted with resignation. Masharawi even incorporates some dry humour as one checkpoint is easily circumvented, or a casually discarded item is quickly assumed to be a “suspicious baggage”.

The crisp, sunlit cinematography of Duraid Munajim adds to the film’s warm, generous spirit, a mood also embodied in the performances. Barhom brings a nice weary edge to Kamal, a man often exasperated by the demands and persistence of his younger companions but who always keeps travelling onwards. Ayyash’s Sami is a spirited figure; dopey and vague about what his future may hold but resolute in his focus on finding his bird.

Passing Dreams is a gentle, good-hearted film that believes in the kindness of strangers and salutes a solidarity forged in adversity. Mashari’s alternative vision of Palestine is to place hope at the centre of his film – something he achieves with charm and sincerity.