An independent Arab film takes the jury prize: notes on a movie made for the price of a truck

Nobody expected a film shot in sixteen days with a single camera and a cast drawn from the village itself to leave with the special jury prize, yet that is what happened last night when the director took the stage and dedicated the award to "the villagers who gave us their homes and their time and never asked about pay".

What the film is about

The story follows a mountain village promised a paved road by the government twenty years ago. Almost nothing happens: people wait, marry, their children emigrate, some return. But the waiting itself becomes a character, and the absent road becomes the mirror in which everyone sees what they want from life.

Why it works

The film's secret is its refusal to explain. No score tells you when to feel sad, no dialogue summarises what you have just seen. The camera sits with people and waits with them, and the viewer who lends the film their patience is rewarded with one of the strongest closing scenes of the festival.

"I had no money to make a big film, so I decided to make an honest one," the director said at the press conference after the ceremony.

Three reasons to watch it

• Non-professional performances so real you forget the camera exists.
• Natural photography that relies on sunlight alone and turns the mountain into a character.
• An ending that does not close the story but opens it onto a question that stays with you for days.

After the prize

An Arab streaming platform signed a distribution deal within hours of the ceremony, with a month-long theatrical run first — a precedent that could rescue similar films usually buried right after the festival circuit.