Co-Presented By<a href="https://palestinianyouthmovement.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/a4d231f2de977bb96b00a0d154930624.jpg" width="218" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;"></a> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/31b15ec867c2a1e0d762ca1855498d7d.png" width="208"><a href="https://www.reelasian.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/2e3a07bd47903e06fee3ecb98c852306.png" width="200" style="display: inline; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px; float: left;"></a>

Coming Home is an intimate portrait of Freedom Dabka Group, a group of Palestinian-American performers who use the traditional Dabka dance as a means to connect to their community, their culture, and each other. Shot on 16mm under the unique constraints of 2020-21 featuring archive photography from The Palestinian Museum.

Coming Home

Arabic, Hebrew with English subtitles Despite being part of a young generation of Palestinians whose families chose to stay and challenge the Israeli state after Al-Nakba, 17-year-old Tamer and his friends are just like any other group of teenage boys. They clumsily search for drugs, flirt with girls, play video games, and slack off at school. However, when an intriguing new student named Maysaa’ joins their class Tamer immediately falls for her and is drawn into her political activism. Together, they join fellow classmates in an operation to covertly raise the Palestinian flag at their school and peacefully disrupt the local celebrations planned for Israel’s Independence Day – otherwise known to Palestinians as a day of mourning and memorialization of their ethnic cleansing 70 years prior. Unsure of his own political convictions, Tamer must quickly determine what matters to him and what price he is willing to pay for freedom. A skillful examination of the fraught political awakening young Palestinians are forced to undergo, this TIFF World premiere is a striking debut feature film from Firas Khoury, that marries conversations around nationalism and iconography with the universal themes of growing up. Original ScoreFaraj Suleiman Past FestivalsWORLD PREMIERE AT VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALToronto International Film Festival (TIFF)Malmo Arab Film Festival

Toronto Palestine Film Festival

Alam, The Flag علم w/ Coming Home