:: IFFK 2008 ::

In Rashid Masharawi’s Laila’s Birthday (Eid Milad Laila), Abu Laila (Mohammed Bakri) is a personified incongruity of an ex-judge working as a taxi driver in Ramallah as means of subsistence. The film tracks a single day in the life of Abu. The opening sequence peers into the bedrooms of Abu and his daughter as he wakes in the middle of the night to check on her to quell his nagging worry despite the calm. In the morning, Abu’s wife insists that he return before 8 pm, as it his daughter Laila’s birthday. However, through a series of arbitrary circumstances, he is entangled in the chaotic existence of daily life in Ramallah.

Abu’s travails take him from the comfort and warmth of his home, through the absurdity of the government, and into the commonplace incidents of violence in the city that leave the witness incredulous. Abu’s request for an appointment as a judge is lost in the mazes of a governance in perpetual transition, one without any tangible authority. So is his existence as a law-abiding citizen. Prominent stickers warn off smokers along as well as armed passengers.

In Ramallah, a city where an hour on the internet costs more than an hour in a taxi, lovers seek the backseat for a tryst and solitude. It is also a city where at any moment an explosion can destroy the equanimity. Abu’s rage is directed at personal and individual transgressions till in a final poignant outburst, it addresses the larger conflict in question.

After a fashion Abu’s professional existence is emblematic of the lives of people in Ramallah in their struggle to maintain a semblance of order amidst the turmoil and strife. Abu is an island in his own brand of individualism; the dollops of intellect and sensitivity constantly contrasting with the surrounding events. Mohammed Bakri slides effortlessly underneath the skin of Abu with the simple gesture of buttoning his collar; he lives on the screen as Abu Laila.

At the end of the day, Abu returns home with neither the birthday cake, nor a present for his only child. But he has the accretions of the fateful day – a rosary necklace, a cake left behind by a bereaved widow and the accidental wedding decorations on his car; all coming together as a fortunate coincidence.

Abu Laila ultimately voices the politics of the Gaza-born director Masharawi, at times subtly and on occasion in not-so-subtle terms. Abu and the people he meets and interacts with establish the fabric of Palestinian life and society under occupation.