Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Tawfeek Barhom | ... | Mohammed Assaf | |
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Qais Attaallah | ... | Mohammed Assaf (younger) (as Qais Attallah) |
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Hiba Attalah | ... | Nour (as Hiba Attahllah) |
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Ahmad Qasem | ... | Young Ahmad (as Ahmad Qassim) |
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Abdel Kareem Barakeh | ... | Young Omar (as Abdalkarim Abubaraka) |
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Teya Hussein | ... | Young Amal |
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Dima Awawdeh | ... | Amal |
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Ahmed Al Rokh | ... | Omar (as Ahmad Rokh) |
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Saber Shreim | ... | Ahmad |
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Amer Hlehel | ... | Kamal |
Manal Awad | ... | Mohammed's Mother | |
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Walid Abed Elsalam | ... | Mohammed's Father (as Waleed Abd Elsalem) |
Eyad Hourani | ... | Ali Kushk | |
Ashraf Barhom | ... | Hehler - The Smuggler | |
Nadine Labaki | ... | Shadia |
Since his early years in his native Gaza, Mohammed Assaf has had a golden voice. Accompanied by his sister Nour and two of his friends, he sings in courtyards first and later at weddings while Kamal helps him to develop the full range of his vocal capacities. Nour unfortunately dies of kidney failure and Mohammed grows up in sorrow and bitterness, all the more as war strikes his hometown. In 2012, he is a student and drives a taxi to finance his studies. He wants to start singing again but he can envisage singing as a career only in leaving Gaza. His only hope is to participate in the famous "Arab Idol" contest. But how to leave the place without a visa? Written by Guy Bellinger
I do love a good heartfelt true story, and this was right up my alley. I was hooked from the start and felt really bad for the sister, who would have had to have been the best actor in the movie (the main character as a boy had to be the worst I thought). The missed a trick however when they didn't really refer back to her in the Idol run.
The movie however was not without it's flaws. The splicing in of the Arab Idol took away from the emotion at the end of the movie and put a dampener on the movies end.
This however was only a minor detail as in overall terms this was a good movie which shows how reality shows can actually be important things for certain peoples.