Laila's Birthday

2008

1h 11m

Comedy

Drama

List

82%

Tomatometer

11 Reviews

65%

Audience Score

100+ Ratings

Forced to change careers after government cuts, Palestinian judge Abu Laila (Mohammed Bakri) becomes a cabbie. And in his new profession, chaos is the rule. One morning, Abu's wife, Um (Areen Omari), dispatches him with the task of securing a gift and a cake for Laila (Nour Zoubi), their soon-to-be 7-year-old daughter. But in a day marked by gridlock, unruly passengers and surprises at every turn, Abu's simple errand becomes a surreal adventure in the urban dysfunction of the West Bank.

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Ben Kenigsberg

Time Out

Rated: 2/5

Nov 17, 2011

Full Review

Kevin B. Lee

Time Out

Masharawi's film is a vivid passenger-seat tour of a society perpetually crashing into madness.

Rated: 3/6

May 28, 2009

Full Review

Ella Taylor

Village Voice

Laila's Birthday is beautifully shot and overlaid with a spare, lyrical score that lends rueful emphasis to Masharawi's exasperated fidelity to a chronically malfunctioning city.

May 27, 2009

Full Review

Joanne Laurier

World Socialist Web Site

With Laila's Birthday, the filmmaker's intent was to show "the confusion that shapes Palestinian life at this moment."

Mar 5, 2021

Full Review

Sean Axmaker

Seanax.com

It's a portrait in frustration and exasperation yet the tone is always affectionate, a satire that confronts serious concerns with a gentle touch...

Jan 9, 2010

Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...a promising yet unfulfilling endeavor...

Rated: 2/4

Oct 1, 2009

Full Review

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Audience Member

Jafar Panahi's Taxi is definitely more entertaining, but this film gives you a taste of the lives of Palestinians.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A heartwarming, hard-hitting slice of life that flirts with the absurdity of life in wartime. Very Kafka, full of bleak humour and featuring a protagonist you can't help but root for. Beautiful film that more people should see.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

With a running time of just sixty-nine minutes, "Laila's Birthday" chronicles a day in the life of a Palestinian cab driver (a day that also happens to be his daughter's seventh birthday). Abu Laila is actually a former judge who, due to budget cuts, is now forced to drive a taxi, owned by his brother-in-law, to support his wife and child. The "plot" of the movie consists of little more than a series of deliberately undramatic and wryly humorous vignettes revolving around Abu and the cross section of humanity that passes through his cab that day. His passengers include a just-paroled ex-con, an amorous young couple looking for a place to be alone, a woman on her way to the cemetery and the hospital, and another woman whose husband has just been killed in a car bombing. As conceived by writer/director Rashid Masharawi and embodied by the finely stoic and deadpan actor, Mohammed Bakri, Abu is remarkably reticent for a central character - one who rarely articulates his thoughts about the people and events taking place around him. Yet, one senses in the man an undercurrent of frustration arising from having to live in an occupied territory - the West Bank city of Ramallah - a frustration that Abu finally gives vent to in the closing moments of the story. Otherwise, the movie doesn't push its political points and doesn't go for grand dramatic gestures and themes. It merely observes daily life as this one man witnesses it, finding humor in some of the unlikeliest of places. Despite the lack of drama in the situations themselves, there's something strangely hypnotic in Abu's continual cruising through the city and around the countryside, and in his interactions with the various people who come his way.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This was a great film all around. The writing was just great.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This film depicts a day in the life of a Palestinian judge-turned-cab-driver. I'm torn about <i>Laila's Birthday</i>. On the one hand, I think it's essentially a political film, and the film rarely rises above its political point to become about real people; oftentimes political points are best made when they're subtly worked in to the action. That said, I must note that I am entirely sympathetic to the film's politics; there's no issue more clear-cut in my view than how brutal and debilitating the violence inflicted on the Palestinians by their occupiers is. On the other hand, the film avoids demonization of Israel. In fact, most of the inconveniences Abu Laila faces are caused by his countrymen. This is a mature approach that avoids easy polemical binaries. So, its weakness - its overt politics - is related to its strength - its unique approach at politics. For many Americans, who may not be familiar with everyday life in Palestine, this is a very good film to watch. It shows how Palestinians' existence is limited but not defined by colonization and certainly works against the myths that all Arabs in the region are gun-toting terrorists. Overall, I think a less constrained, more revealing performance by Mohammad Bakri and a greater focus on Abu Laila would have made the film less overtly political and subsequently stronger.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

funny, sad, frustrating -- the normal day in a life of a Palestinian taxi driver who used to be a judge and believes in law and order in a place that is quite without it -- but the end shows that it is all worth it.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

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Rashid Masharawi

Director

Mohammad Bakri

Abu Laila

Areen Omari

Um Laila

Nour Zoubi

Laila

Saleh Bakri

Former Prisoner

Housam Abu Aishe

Gas Station Employee

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Synopsis

Forced to change careers after government cuts, Palestinian judge Abu Laila (Mohammed Bakri) becomes a cabbie. And in his new profession, chaos is the rule. One morning, Abu's wife, Um (Areen Omari), dispatches him with the task of securing a gift and a cake for Laila (Nour Zoubi), their soon-to-be 7-year-old daughter. But in a day marked by gridlock, unruly passengers and surprises at every turn, Abu's simple errand becomes a surreal adventure in the urban dysfunction of the West Bank.

Director: Rashid Masharawi
Screenwriter: Rashid Masharawi
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: Arabic
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 21, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $9.1K
Runtime: 1h 11m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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