How kids roll

Plot

Gaza strip, 2003. Israeli settlements are still present near Gaza, and the second intifada is underway. Forty-three per cent of the population is under the age of 14.

Director

Loris Lai

Synopsis

Mahmud ahmud is an 11-year-old Palestinian boy who lives alone in Gaza with his young mother Farah, widow of a resistance “martyr”. He helps her sell bunches of thyme, moving between alarms, bombings and curfews in a city devastated by an endless conflict that indiscriminately targets civilians. On the beach where he goes to learn to surf, Mahmud sees a boy moving furtively and returning to the settlement near the roadblocks: it is Alon, the only son of a Jewish couple, who shares his passion for surfing. Dan, a young foreign surfer who stayed in the country after an accident that left him addicted to painkillers, is also connected to the sea.

Produced by

Jean Vigo Italia and Eagles Pictures with RAI Cinema in association with B-Roll Production, Potemkino, Panoramic with the support of M.i.C. – Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo, Regione Lazio, co-financed project by UE

Cast

Mahmud Farsoun: Marwan Ali Hamdan
Alon: Mikhael Fridel
Dan: Tom Rhys Harries
Farah: Lyna Khoudri
Jamil: Qassim Gdeh
Abdul: Oday Saedi
Samir: Aws Raed
Halima: Yasmine Attia
Ashraf: Husam Chadat
Ahed: Eyad Hourani
Noah: Jaron Löwenberg
Sara: Ruth Rosenfeld

Credits

Screenplay: Loris Lai e Dahlia Heyman
Editor: Andrea Maguolo
Costume Designer: Salah Barka
Production Designer: Bassem Marzouk
Cinematographer: Shane Sigler

Music composed, orchestrated and conducted by: Nicola Piovani

Technical data

Year: 2024
Runtime: 113′
Country: Italy/Belgium
Language: English/Arab/Hebrew