Movie HAPPY HOLIDAYS by Scandar Copti

Palestine, Germany, France, Italy, Qatar 2024/ Director: Scandar Copti/ Cast: Manar Shehab, Wafaa Aoun, Meirav Memorsky, Toufic Danial a.o./ 123 min. | arab./hebr. omdtU/ ages 12+

In the cultural melting pot of Haifa, the stories of two families intertwine in a web of social constructs, lies and intrigue. Rami’s girlfriend is pregnant. He finds parenthood too difficult, she wants to keep the child. His wealthy parents are in financial difficulties, but the mother simply ignores this and continues to plan a big family party unperturbed. Meanwhile, Miri, the sister of Rami’s girlfriend, is preoccupied with her daughter, who seems to be suffering from depression – at the same time, she is trying to sabotage her sister’s relationship with Rami. When a car accident occurs, it doesn’t seem to mean anything. But it is enough to gradually bring the fragile structure to collapse.

Scandar Copti (*1975) is a Palestinian actor, director and screenwriter of Arab-Christian origin. He already worked as an assistant director while studying film in Tel Aviv; in 2002, he presented his first short film, אמת (WAHR/ECHT) at
. His international breakthrough came in 2009 with AJAMI, which was shown at the 24th Mediterranean Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar in the “Best Foreign Language Film” category.