Neighbours

Synopsis

In a Syrian border village in the early 80’s, six-year old Kurdish boy Sero experiences his first year in an Arab school. A new teacher has arrived with the goal of making strapping Pan-Arabic comrades out of the Kurdish children. He uses the rod to forbid the Kurdish language and preaches hate against the Jews. The lessons upset and confuse Sero because his long-time neighbors are a lovable Jewish family. With a fine sense of humor and satire, the film depicts a childhood which manages to find light moments between dictatorship and dark drama. Little Sero gets involved in dangerous pranks with his friends and dreams of having a television so he can finally watch cartoons. But he also experiences how the adults around him are increasingly crushed by the despotism, violence and nationalism which surround them.