Doha Film Institute
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In a communal home for divorced and widowed women, a Saudi woman searches for her estranged sons while redefining family and belonging through her evolving relationships with the other women.
In a communal home for women in Saudi Arabia, we follow an older Saudi woman, one of the first residents and the queen bee. As a self-proclaimed manager of the home, she naturally guards her territory and challenges the other women, who both fear and love her. Yet her strength slowly reveals itself as a mask for her pain. She was a child bride who, after her divorce, has not seen her sons for 25 years and has been on a continual journey to reconnect with them. As we accompany her through this unpredictable search that reveals complex and bitter truths, another journey unfolds, one of reclaiming her identity as a woman and forming a chosen family with the other residents. But as uncertainty grows, she learns that the place she calls home, and the women she calls family, could soon be gone. Together, they must find a way to keep their lives from scattering and hold on to the only sense of belonging they have left.

Credits

Director
Lama Jamjoom
Screenwriter
Lama Jamjoom
Producer
Maryam Sindi, Mawaddah Sallam, Lama Jamjoom
Production Company
Dar Dowar

About the Director

Lama Jamjoom
Lama Jamjoom is a Saudi documentary filmmaker and photographer based in Jeddah and holds a bachelor’s degree in Cinematic Arts. Her work focuses on local women’s narratives through an observational lens, with films such as ‘Mother Eve’ (2023), which premiered and was awarded at international film festivals, including Rabat International Film Festival and FICIMAD. Her practice extends across filmma