CPFF2026 Review: Sink

Year: 2025

Runtime: 88 min

Director/Writer: Zain Duraie

Actors: Clara Khoury, Mohammad Nizar, and Wissam Tobaileh

By Guest Reviewer Alexei Holloway

“Sink” (2025) is a heartrending look at a family coming to terms with their son’s mental illness. 

Basil (Mohammad Nizar) is the middle child of a middle-class, Jordanian family. While he is brilliant, he struggles socially and prefers spending time alone studying and watching videos on open heart surgery. He wants to be a heart surgeon. His oldest brother is the charming all-star basketball player and his sister is the cute and sweet little sister. His father travels for his work and while he adores his oldest and youngest children, he has a hard time connecting with his middle child. Basil’s mother, Nadia (Clara Khoury) adores him and is his biggest supporter and champion. 

            Nadia’s love for her son and his father’s distance prevent both parents from recognizing and acknowledging that Basil needs help. However, their ignorance is shattered when Basil is suspended for hitting a teacher. We see the events that lead up to the supposed assault, but we don’t see the assault itself, leaving it up to the audience to decide who is telling the truth: the school or Basil, who claims it was an accident. The father sides with the school while Nadia sides with her son. 

            Their eldest son has a championship game out of the city. The rest of the family goes to the game while Basil and Nadia remain home. Nadia believes if they have a few days alone, she can reach her son and “fix” whatever the problem is. Their loving moments of reconnecting are with many alarming moments such as when Basil wakes her up while wearing a horse mask and forces her to wear a bunny mask and then grunts at her and when he goes to a park with a chicken coop and tries to murder the chickens. 

            Basil’s parents schedule a therapist but he refuses to go and lashes out, hurting his mother in the process. Horrified by what he’s done, Basil reports himself to the police. When the police arrive, Nadia rushes to her son’s side and sits with him in the ambulance, holding his hands, making it clear that she will remain by his side no matter what.  

            “Sink” can be a difficult watch as Nadia struggles with accepting that her son needs help and Basil grows increasingly unpredictable. Clara Khoury gives an outstanding performance as her love for her son is always present, even when she is terrified of him. She never gives up on him, even when he attacks her, and yet she can’t stop her heart from breaking when she realizes she isn’t sure she can help him. Mohammad Nizar gives a truly moving performance as a teen who knows he is different but doesn’t understand why. Nizar never allows Basil to be a monster. He makes Basil adorably at ease when he is playing with his little sister, letting her put makeup on him and playing charades, and helping his mother around the house and, even when Basil is at his most threatening, he is not a cruel psychopath. He is a lost and struggling child who doesn’t have the tools to help him survive in a neurotypical world.

🎬✨ Ein Fest für junge Medienfans! Beim Deutschen Kinder Medien Festival „Goldener Spatz“ erwarten euch spannende Filme, Serien & digitale Geschichten – eine ganze Woche voller Kino-Feeling 🎥🎮 📍 Gera & Erfurt 📅 07.–13. Juni 2026 Das Highlight: Kinderjurys entscheiden selbst, wer die begehrten Preise gewinnt! 🏆👧🧒 Mehr Infos: https://goldenerspatz.de/festival/

#GoldenerSpatz #Filmfestival #KinderMedien #Gera #Erfurt #Festival

The flowers are blooming, and our friends over at ImageOut are kicking off their Spring Film Festival - showcasing a bountiful variety LGBTQ+ arts and cultural experiences! Tomorrow!

4/23 - 4/27

https://imageout.org/

#ROC #RochesterNY #LGBTQ #FilmFestival #movies

CPFF 2026 Review: Thank You for Banking with Us

Year: 2024

Runtime: 92 minutes

Writer/Director: Laila Abbas

Actors: Yasime Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Adam Khattar, Salwa Nakkara

By Guest Reviewer Alexei Holloway

“Thank You For Banking With Us” (2024) is a funny and moving look at sisterhood and challenging the patriarchy. 

Noura (Yasime Al Massri) and Maryam (Clara Khoury) are estranged sisters with less than perfect lives. Noura is a beauty clinician who cares for their ailing father while Maryam is stuck in a loveless marriage with children she no longer feels connected to. When their father dies, the two work together to take their father’s money out of the bank before their absent and judgmental brother who lives in America comes along and takes the money and half the house (per Sharia law).

What follows is a funny pseudo-heist as the sisters bounce off of obstacle after obstacle trying to navigate a deeply patriarchal society and arguing with each other. While looking for help from every man they know, they are constantly shut down, told they are sinners and ungrateful daughters, and have no right to ask for that money. Yet, their brother never bothered to care for their father or check in on his sisters. It was Noura and Maryam who cared for their father, feeding him, cleaning up after him, checking in on him. Why should their brother get both the money and half the house when he did nothing? Why do male relatives, husbands, and lovers have the right to tell these women no when they’ve done nothing to help Noura and Maryam survive? 

            Clara Khoury and Yasmine Al Massri are a powerful and hilarious duo. When they are not cursing and arguing with the unhelpful men in their lives, they are arguing with each other, pulling up old wounds and half-remembered fights from their past like real siblings. Yet, when they see how the other lives and are betrayed by the men they are supposed to be able to rely on, they realize all they have ever had is each other. That will never stop them from fighting, but it helps bring them closer together and, with a little help from Maryam’s youngest son Ali (Adam Khattar) enables them to finally work together to get the money they deserve and to properly lay their father to rest. By the end, one hopes that their newly rekindled friendship can also prevent Maryam’s sons from turning into the very men who did nothing to help the women retrieve their rightful inheritance. 

I spent yesterday at the very first Northern Plains Indigenous Film Festival. The organizers are well in their way to bringing something very special and sorely needed to our community. It was interesting, humbling, educational and often funny to watch submitted works by local, national and Canadian filmmakers. I learned from stories and voices I had never heard before, from places I have never been before. Quite a few makers and actors traveled to the event, held at the historic #FargoTheatre. Well done, and thanks to all who made it happen. I can't wait for next years' fest.

#movies #Filmfestival #indigenous #nativeamericans #npiff #fargond #fargo #northdakota #fargomoorhead #nativefilms

https://northernplainsfestival.org/

RE: https://mastodon.world/@LICHTER_Filmfest/116414404021164389

I'll be there... #FrankfurtMain #Kinoleinwand #Filmfestival