PERSONAL AFFAIRS

Saleh and Nabeela are an elderly couple, bored of their routine life in Nazareth. On most days, his eyes are glued to a laptop, while she blankly stares at the television, robotically knitting. Any interaction between them is brief at best. Their kids are all grown up and preoccupied, living at a safe distance from their parents’ seemingly frigid relationship. Unfortunately, geography hasn’t prevented their unhappiness from spreading. There’s Tarek, who can’t shed his bachelor life in Ramallah, doing all he can to avoid falling in love. His pregnant sister Samar feels burdened for having to care for her husband’s senile grandmother, while he’s off pursuing his dream as an actor. Meanwhile, Saleh and Nabeela’s oldest child Hisham is in Sweden, enamored over a mystery girl who always seems to let him down. At first-glance, their situations seem relatively different. But a common thread emerges in the absence of effective communication. PERSONAL AFFAIRS is a beautifully honest drama about a family struggling to find the words to keep their fractured world from falling apart. (In Arabic with subtitles) —E.F.