NEIGHBOURS Screens in Jordan’s Rainbow Cinema

release date October 29 2022

Kurdish feature film NEIGHBOURS, by Mano Khalil, will be screened at Rainbow Cinema in Jordan on November 1st and November 6th. The film has garnered over 50 international awards from prestigious festivals, most recently the Best Director at the Arab Film Festival Rotterdam. The screening coincides with the release of the film's official poster across the Arab world by MAD Solutions, the film's distributor.

The film is set in the early 1980s in a Syrian refugee camp in Kurdistan, Iraq; during Hafez al-Assad’s regime, in a small village on the Turkish-Syrian border, Sero, a Kurdish child, must deal with how his small world is radically changing upside down.

Written and directed by Mano Khalil, NEIGHBOURS stars Serhed Khalil, Jalal Altawil, Jay Abdo, and Mazen Al Natour It’s produced by Frame Film and is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.

On a parallel note, on both the Arab and international levels, NEIGHBOURS has received significant critical acclaim, with Eremnews commenting, “Every scene in Mano Khalil’s film narrates a story that its parts integrate, creating a poetic and heartbreaking celluloid”. Moreover, Shorouk news wrote that “ With a blend of sarcasm and laughter, NEIGHBOURS portrays the absurdity of war through the eyes of a child who eventually finds light in a dark doubtful dictatorial world.” While Elhayat Alarabiya described the script as “ A rich script that crosses boundaries between documentary and narration”. In addition, the We Are Movie Geeks website wrote “NEIGHBOURS is both a touching, warm human tale laced with humor and childhood appeal and a pointed satiric look at the roots of hate, not just in Syria.”

The film nabbed several awards from prestigious international film festivals, most notably, Best Screenplay at the Red Sea International Film Festival, Best Film, Audience Award, and Jury of Teachers Award at the African Asian Latin American Film Festival in Milan, San Francisco Film Critics Jury Prize in the USA, Audience Award at Boston Film Festival, Best Film and Best Actor Award at Hollywood Arab Film Festival, Grand Prize at Mons International Film Festival in Belgium and Best Film at Gangneung International Film Festival in South Korea. Additionally, it landed its world premiere at Shanghai International Film Festival, then it was screened at Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.

Born in Syria, Mano Khalil is a Kurdish director/scriptwriter. He studied directing in Czechoslovakia and earned his MBA in Film & TV Directing. He moved to Switzerland, in 1996, and started his filmmaking journey as a director on several short films. He made numerous award-winning documentaries, including Triumph of Iron and The place Where God Sleeps. In 2003, he directed his feature debut Colorful dreams, followed by many significant films, including Our Garden of Eden, which is recognised as one of the 100 best films in Swiss cinema history; The Bee Keeper, Die Schwalbe, and Hafis & Mara. His most recent film is NEIGHBOURS.