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Go with Peace Jamil

Go with Peace Jamil

Ma salama Jamil

Omar Shargawi | Denmark | 2008 | 90' |

| IFFR 2008

Shargawi about his début film: ‘Go with Peace Jamil is about Arab people in a Western country. The story is based on the cultural, religious and traumatic ballast many Middle Eastern refugees carry along when they arrive at their new home in the West.’
The gripping drama focuses on Jamil, an Arab young man in Copenhagen who is involved in settling old debts – unwillingly, but no less violently. With his colourful Arab cast, Shargawi sketches the Arab immigrant community in a large western city in a mature and self-assured way. Hardly a word of Danish is spoken. The tragedy is driven by the power of family bonds and the loyalty and self-sacrifice between friends, the religious boundaries within the Arab community and Jamil’s love for his little son and his wife, from whom he has become alienated.
Shargawi: ‘Somehow, I also let my story’s characters spring out of peoples’ prejudices about Arabs, but first of all I want to show that Arabs are not just bad-tempered maniacs with bombs around their waists. I want to get inside their minds and show the sorrow and privation many Middle East people feel. At the same time I would like to illustrate the beauty of the Arabic culture, the way the sophisticated Arabic language is being used and the warmth and tenderness, which exist between most Arabs.’ (GT)