Concrete Land

Al-Najar is a Palestinian Bedouin family of three generations living in makeshift tents in one of Amman’s suburbs in Jordan, on land they don’t own, they lived as Bedouins with their different animals on that land for the past 21 years. In recent years the area transformed into a high-class neighborhood. Their quiet Bedouin life is turned upside down when construction starts to creep up on them. Their new neighbors are focused on kicking them out of the area in order to “clean up” the neighborhood. When one neighbor files a complaint against the family with the local government, the threat becomes a reality, and the family is forced to make a choice. To continue to be Bedouins and find new land to occupy; or abandon their lifestyle and move to the city. The family is in a dire situation, they have conflicting inner desires and the tension between them and their new neighbors rises, they now realize they have to make a decision soon.

LENGTH

Feature

GENRE

Documentary

PRODUCED IN

Lebanon / Canada

STATUS

In Progress

WITH THE HELP OF

Climate Story Lab

impact
campaign

Put the spotlight on the individual struggles of young refugees trying to find opportunities to fulfill their dreams. Contribute to the conversation about the legal status of the refugees in their hosting countries. Encourage sports and talent oriented activities in refugee camps. Inspire the younger generation of refugees to invest in their dreams.

meet the director

Asmahan Bkerat is a Palestinian-Jordanian documentary filmmaker. Her love for cinema has led her to work in various roles on films of different scales, before setting on the path to documentary film. Bkerat has worked on international promos for the UEFA and the upcoming German feature documentary WATERPROOF (2019), which premiered at IDFA. She has also worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as Disney’s ALADDIN (2019) and Sky One’s STRIKE BACK. Bkerat’s first short documentary “Badrya” won the Jury Prize for Best MiniDoc at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival. She is currently working on her first feature-length documentary “CONCRETE LAND” which got the IDFA Bertha Fund and DFI grant. She also has two short documentaries in post. She is an alumnus of the IDFA Academy, DFI, The Scottish Documentary Institute, The Whickers, The American Film Showcase, Cannes Docs in progress, Dhaka doc lab and the RFC.

meet the producer

Ban ventured in the world of filmmaking working on blockbuster films like Disney “Aladdin 2019” as a production assistant, and a couple of other documentary independent films like “Concrete Land” which she is writing and producing.

meet the producer

Sahar Yousefi is an award-winning producer based in Toronto. Prior to establishing Nava Projects,Yousefi started her career at National Film Board of Canada, where she worked on various features and interactive new media content,. She is currently in post-production on CONCRETE LAND (2022).

meet the impact producer

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Please note that the information presented from our programs is taken directly from the official publication from each edition. While this information is limited, it is the information given to us by the main project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications, and is meant only as a historical record of the film or project at the time of its involvement with Aflamuna.