Hlam al-manfa

This film explores how teenaged Palestinians cope with life in refugee camps in Bethlehem (Dheisa) and in Beirut (Shatila). The focus is on Manar Faraj in Dheisa and Mona Zaaroura in Shatila who're about the same age. Mona and the other Shatila refugees long to return to their village in Palestine drawing maps of the location of their villages.

They and other Palestinians of their age start to write letters to each other creating a common bond. The dramatic highpoint comes when they and other Palestinians are able to meet each other in person at the Lebanon-Israeli/Palestinian border. That scene is heart-tugging and it certainly formed a sturdy bridge between them even as one of them (Samar) leaves with her family to seek asylum in the UK.

This film is all the more poignant as it comes on the heels of the 2nd Intifada that brought untold suffering to Palestinians in the refugee camps as well. And then just a few years later, they had to endure the 2nd Lebanon War.

The viewer wonders how are those teenagers with their dreams and aspirations now 20 years later. What has happened to Manar, Mona and the rest who're now in their mid-30s? Have they moved on to Palestine or some other country or are they still there like their parents and grandparents before them?