Synopsis:

Locked away for life, Walid Daqqa finds company in his cell: an olive tree, a dog, a lazy cat, an impatient rabbit, a donkey, a bird — and an unborn daughter — Milad. The tree gives seven magical seeds that can make anything invisible. "We could use them to walk out free!". Walid refuses: is that enough? What about the future? Six seeds later, one remains — and the answer finally arrives.

Director’s profile:

Ahmad Saleh, Basel Nasr, and Mats Grorud are an internationally acclaimed trio of directors and animators specializing in tactile, expressive stop-motion filmmaking. Ahmad Saleh is a Student Academy Award-winning writer-director (House, Ayny, Night) recognized globally for his poetic stop-motion craft. Basel Nasr is a veteran Palestinian animator, educator, and founder of Ramallah’s Al-Masna studio, with two decades of hands-on leadership in puppet building, set design, and stop-motion production. Mats Grorud is the Oscar-longlisted Norwegian director of The Tower, which famously combined stop-motion puppet animation with historical narratives.

Together, the trio brings student Oscar and Oscar-longlisted credentials, master-level craftsmanship in physical puppet creation and miniaturized set design, and a shared dedication to Palestinian storytelling. Co-founders of the "Palestine Animated" collective, they pool their specialized stop-motion background to bring Walid Daqqa’s story to life through tangible, emotive craft.

Producer’s profile:

Philistine Films and Mikrofilm combine live-action narrative prestige with award-winning animation production. Philistine Films is a leading Palestinian production house whose feature credits include Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36. Mikrofilm (www.mikrofilm.no), an Oscar®-winning Norwegian studio (The Danish Poet) specializing in auteur animation cinema. This partnership fuses Philistine Films’ live-action cinematic credentials with Mikrofilm’s established European animation infrastructure to realize the directors’ stop-motion vision.