''Lamya's Poem'' is a 2021

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, an ...

, directed and written by

Alex Kronemer Alexander Kronemer (born 19 June 1960, Pennsylvania, United States) is a writer, lecturer, and documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on religious diversity, Islam, and cross-cultural understanding. He is the co-founder and executive producer o ...

. The film stars

Mena Massoud Mena Mansour Massoud ( ar, مينا منصور مسعود; born September 17, 1991) is an Egyptian-born Canadian actor known for starring as the title character in the Disney fantasy film ''Aladdin'' (2019). He also starred as Jared Malik in the C ...

Millie Davis Millie Davis (born 6 December 2006) is a Canadian actress who plays Ms. O / Big O in the TVOKids/ PBS Kids series ''Odd Squad'', Riley in the television show ''Dino Dana'', Summer in ''Wonder'', and Gemma Hendrix in ''Orphan Black.'' She was nomi ...

and

Faran Tahir Faran Haroon Tahir (born February 16, 1963) is a Pakistani-American actor. Tahir was born in Los Angeles to an artistic family. His parents were actor Naeem Tahir and radio host Yasmeen Tahir and his grandparents were writers Imtiaz Ali Taj and ...

Premise

The film centres on Lamya, a young Syrian girl who has left her hometown of

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

as a

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

during the Syrian civil war, who finds solace in her inner fantasy life as she reads and is inspired by the poetry of

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī ( fa, جلال‌الدین محمد رومی), also known as Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (), Mevlânâ/Mawlānā ( fa, مولانا, lit= our master) and Mevlevî/Mawlawī ( fa, مولوی, lit= my ma ...

Cast

as Lamya *

as Baha Walad * Aya Bryn as Lamya's Mother *

Raoul Bhaneja Raoul Bhaneja is an English-Canadian actor, musician, writer and producer. Early life and studies Bhaneja was born in Manchester. His father is an Indian Sindhi and mother is Irish. A graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada and Ot ...

as Mr. Hamadani / Smuggler *

Nissae Isen Nissae Isen (born March 3, 1997) is a Canadian voice actress who has voiced prominent young male characters in several television series, including BG's younger brother George in ''Miss BG'' from 2005 to 2008, Yuri from ''My Big Big Friend'' fro ...

as Bassam

Release

An excerpt from the film was screened at the 2020

Annecy International Animation Film Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...

in the Works in Progress stream, before the completed film premiered at Annecy in 2021. WestEnd Films has international distribution rights, while

ICM Partners ICM Partners is a talent and literary agency with offices in Los Angeles, New York City, Washington D.C. and London. ICM (International Creative Management) Partners represents clients in the fields of motion pictures, television, music, publi ...

holds North American rights. Freestyle Digital Media acquired the North American DVD and VOD rights and released the film on digital HD online, cable, and satellite platforms on February 21, 2023. On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Lamya's Poem'' has an approval rating of 90% based on 10 reviews with an average rating of 7 out of 10.

References

External links

Official website
* {{IMDb title, 10346674 2021 films 2021 animated films American animated films Canadian animated feature films Works about the Syrian civil war 2020s English-language films 2020s Canadian films 2020s American films Animated films set in the Middle East