DFI at VOX: Mediterranean Fever

Winner of the best screenplay award in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section last year, the darkly comedic ‘Mediterranean Fever’ explores the complicated friendship between two starkly different neighbours in Haifa. An aspiring writer, Waleed lives with his wife and children. Spending most of his day staring at a blank computer screen in search of inspiration for his book, Waleed struggles with mental illness that even his therapist seems unable to alleviate. After a chance encounter with his new neighbour, Jalal—the pair develop an unlikely bond. Seeing in Jalal the potential of source material for his novel, Waheed joins him eagerly on his daily errands into an increasingly dangerous world of petty crime. As Waleed delves deeper into Jalal’s criminal activity, the true motives behind their growing relationship are not as they first appear. Their friend/enemy dynamic gives the film an ingenious level of charm and sly wit, portrayed perfectly with incredible performances from the two leads, Amer Hlehel and Ashraf Farah. Full of black humour and surprising twists, critically-acclaimed filmmaker Maha Haj keeps us guessing until the very end in this unpredictably captivating comedy about masculinity, mental health and loneliness.