‘When I Saw You’ wins more awards in Greece

AMMAN — Jordanian-Palestinian film “When I Saw You” is still touring festivals worldwide, winning two awards recently at the Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People in Greece.

Lead actor Mahmoud Asfa, who plays Tarek, bagged the award for best young actor in a feature film “for giving a convincing performance of a boy” capable of distinguishing truth from lies, and “refusing to use weapons and violence”, according to the festival’s jury.

The role is Asfa’s first as an actor.

“Speaking from the Irbid Refugee Camp in Jordan, Mahmoud sent a personal message of thanks to the Olympia Film Festival,” said a statement released by Philistine Films, the feature’s production company.

The film also won the UNICEF Award, according to the festival’s website.

“After careful deliberation... we wish to present our award to a film that highlighted the bitter issue of immigration in a sensitive, politically correct and artistic way. We would like to congratulate the creators of ‘When I Saw You’,” the Hellenic National Committee for UNICEF said in a statement posted on the festival’s website.

The critically acclaimed movie has previously won Best Asian Film at the Berlin International Film Festival, Best Arab Film in Abu Dhabi and was Palestine’s 2013 Oscar entry. 

Director and writer Anne Mary Jacir’s second feature film “When I Saw You” takes place in 1967 Jordan when “the world is alive with change: brimming with reawakened energy, new styles, music and an infectious sense of hope,” according to Philistine Films.

The feature follows Tarek, 11, and his mother Ghaydaa, who are amongst this latest wave of Palestinian refugees arriving in Jordan. 

“Placed in ‘temporary’ refugee camps made up of tents and prefab houses until they would be able to return, they wait, like the generation before them who arrived in 1948.”

Tarek faces difficulties adjusting to life in refuge and longs to reunite with his father.

Searching for a way out, he finds a group of people “on a journey that will change their lives”.

Produced by Ossama Bawardi, “When I Saw You” also stars Ruba Blal, Saleh Bakri, Ali Elayan and Ahmad Srour.