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Link: here

Faraway is a 19-minute video shadowing scenes from the life of Omar, a gay Arab living in Montreal, as he navigates life after being cut off by the older members of his family for being gay. Over the course of a year, you watch him struggling to reconnect with his mother, discussing with his sister being ridiculed by other family members, hanging out with a friend, and letting loose at a party in a local bar...the full spectrum of life experiences. The video has a minimalist aspect to it, often letting the scenes of Montreal and muted or muffled video of Omar do the talking, but in the end it makes for a more lively and dramatic experience.

I highly recommend watching it, and then watching the Director's Commentary, which is the director (Aziz Zoromba) watching the video with Omar and discussing what it was like to go through that and have it filmed. The commentary definitely adds insight to Omar's life and the way the film was put together.

The video was dedicated in memory of Sarah Hegazi, an Egyptian lesbian who was arrested and brutalized for months in prison for the crime of waving the rainbow flag at a concert in support of LGBTQ+ rights. Although she was eventually released and granted asylum in Canada (where she continued to advocate for human rights), she struggled with PTSD resulting from her experience and committed suicide in 2020. Sadly, in the Middle East even tributes and monuments to her were covered up or taken down because they supposedly promoted homosexuality, which is still a crime in many areas there. Her story is also one you should read, even if it's just through the Wikipedia page that I linked to. She should be remembered for her courage and endurance in a world where being who you are is punishable by prison, torture, or death.