He also studied filmmaking in Paris and works as a literary critic. Very few people can ignore the visual images seductively enacting dramas before them. His dreams of escape are hindered by his wife's bedridden old father, so Ako finds himself conscripted into the Iraqi army, to fight for a cause that is not his. The inclusion toward the end of black-and-white newsreel footage of the Israeli response to the first in- tifada adds a fresh poignancy to Khleifi's re- strained, contemplative stance. The Arabic transcriptions of the film titles are very simplified forms, de- rived from a variety of national sources and intended merely to identify and differentiate films, which, in many cases, do not have for- mal English or French titles.
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