HOLY AIR

Holy Air

Year 2017
Runtime 81 mins
Language Arabic / Hebrew / English
Subtitles English

In this dark comedy, an Arab Israeli’s midlife crises provokes a scheme to sell bottles of Nazareth’s air to tourists.

Life as a Christian Arab in modern day Nazareth can be messy, but that’s not the end of Adam’s problems. His frisky and volatile wife is intent on getting pregnant, his dad is dying of tongue cancer, and the accompanying financial angst is leaving Adam weary and depressed. Always enterprising, he hatches a plan of self-redemption: if tourists are purchasing flasks of holy water, why not bottle and sell sacred air?

Written, directed, and starring Israel’s Shady Srour (SENSE OF NEED), HOLY AIR premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Its combination of capitalism, Catholic kitsch, sex and morality is reminiscent of a Coen Brothers comedy - Srour lets the humour unfold in patient shots that deadpan reality. The result is unusual, funny and deeply satisfying.

Countries

Israel
Awards
FIPRESCI Prize Jerusalem Film Festival 2017
Festivals
Tribeca, Travelling Film Festival, Jerusalem Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival
Director
Shady Srour
Producer
Ilan Moskovitch, Shady Srour
Screenwriter
Shady Srour
Cast
Shady Srour, Laetitia Eido, Shmulik Calderon, Tarik Copti, Dalia Okal, Byan Anteer