DFI at VOX: Songs of Adam

The year is 1946. Under the strict orders of their father, Adam drags his younger brother Ali to witness their grandfather's corpse being washed before burial. Their cousin Iman, their constant playmate, is excluded from the ritual because she is a girl. The sight of the corpse has a profound effect on Adam; he announces that he doesn't want to grow up, and from that moment on, he stops ageing. As the years pass, the villagers come to believe Adam is cursed, while his brother, grappling with his own ageing, feels Adam should be institutionalised. Only Iman and Anki, a shepherd and Adam's lifelong best friend, see his condition as a blessing, preserving in him the pure, innocent goodness of a child. A haunting and beautiful story set against the oases and dust storms of Iraq.