Neighbours

In a Syrian border village in the early 1980s, little Sero attends school for the first time. A new teacher arrives with the goal of making Pan-Arabic comrades out of the Kurdish children; he forbids the Kurdish language, orders the veneration of Assad, and preaches Jewish hate. The lessons upset and confuse Sero, whose longtime neighbors are a lovable Jewish family. With a fine sense of humor and satire, Neighbours instills light moments in a childhood marred by dictatorship and darkness. Inspired by the director’s bittersweet memories connecting the Syrian tragedy to the present.