old decoration
Christmas is coming, Noor starts organizing a party for his students, although his mother Sahar, doesn’t like it. For any other family, Christmas is the happiest time of the year, not for that one. Soon the relationship between the two will reach a boiling point, through which Nour’s true intentions become clear, intentions that are related to a traumatic event that the two experienced several years before.
Stills from the film
Background about the production process
In Old Decorations, I wanted to shift the focus from statistics to the families left behind. The film follows Sahar, a mother unable to return to life after her son’s death. She clings to his memory through the dishes he loved, while unintentionally neglecting her surviving son, Nour, who still longs for her.
Through long, quiet scenes inside the home, the film reflects the silence and emotional void that society often overlooks once the tragedy fades from public attention. Fady’s absence becomes a metaphor for the many unseen fractures between parents and children.
The film was created through a meaningful collaboration with the RA filmmakers’ forum in Taybeh, whose support allowed us to shoot it in just two days. Making Old Decorations was a powerful experience that deepened my understanding of storytelling and community.
Prize
Winner: the best short film in the Solidarity Film Festival 2024
Judges’ Justification:
Gently and sensitively, the film Old Decorations invites us, the viewers, into a vulnerable and delicate space of a family trying to mend itself after a hard event, which resonates in every frame. The intimate dialogue between the mother and her son, delivered with heart-wrenching performances by Ruba Bilal and Jalal Masarwa, allows director Rami Fahel to unravel and reweave the family bond against a backdrop of hidden, profound pain.
The stunning cinematography feels like an invisible participant in the human drama, shifting between a mysterious ghostly presence and an intimate perspective—perhaps that of the absent brother. With sophisticated direction, where emotions often lie just beneath the surface, the film offers viewers a rich interpretive space, challenging them to complete the story and decode the complex emotional puzzle.
Thus, through a delicate balance between the hidden and the revealed, a cinematic creation emerges, telling with depth and love about the hope that pulses even amidst brokenness—a process of healing, recovery, and hope that triumphs over pain. Together, these elements combine to form an exquisite and poignant cinematic gem.
behind the scenes
crew
Cast:
Ruba Blal
Jalal Masarwa
Written and Directed by Rami Fahel
Producer: Rosalin Agbaria
Director of Photography: Jonathan (Johnny) Karny
Editor: Muhi Heib
Colorist: Peleg Levi
Sound Design & Mix: Jungle Sound Studio Ltd – Neal Gibbs
Original Music: Lina Malshy