A small village on the Syrian-Turkish border in the early 1980s. A six-year-old Kurdish boy experiences his first year in an Arab school and sees how his little world is radically changed by absurd nationalism. With a fine sense of humour and satire, the film tells of a childhood, which, between dictatorship and dark drama, also has its light moments. How much friendship, love and solidarity are possible in times of repression and despotism?
In a Syrian border village in the early 1980s, little Sero attends school for the first time. A new teacher has arrived with the goal of making strapping Panarabic comrades out of the Kurdish children. To enable paradise to come to earth, he uses the rod to forbid the Kurdish language, orders the veneration of Assad and preaches hate of the Zionist enemy—the Jews. The lessons upset and confuse Sero because his long-time neighbours are a lovable Jewish family. Sero’s uncle is even secretly in love with their lovely daughter. With a fine sense of humour and satire, director Mano Khalil 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. The film was inspired by the director’s personal experiences, and so his bitter-sweet memories connect the Syrian tragedy to the present.
