A new trailer has been released for Heidi Saman’s debut feature “Namour,” and it’s guaranteed to make you cringe within seconds. The spot kicks off with the movie’s protagonist being asked, “You from around here?” “Yeah,” Steven (Karim Saleh, “Iron Man 2”) answers. The questioner persists, “But not from here, from here, though, right?” He’s basing this suspicion on the fact that Steven isn’t white. “My parents are from Egypt,” Steven reveals. He appears annoyed but utterly unsurprised by the stranger’s racism. It seems like this is the kind of bullshit Steven has to deal with every day.
According to the film’s official description, “Namour” explores “why life can feel like it’s passing us by.” Steven, a valet driver for a well-known LA restaurant, is “caught between his dead-end job and the demands of his Arab-American immigrant family.” The trailer suggests he has a drinking problem, and his perceived lack of ambition doesn’t sit well with his family.
“I wanted to make a film about feeling stuck,” Saman told Women and Hollywood when the film premiered at LAFF, where it took home the LA Muse Award. “There have been stretches of time in my life that have felt like everything around me was moving along — except for me — and I wanted to make a film about that feeling.” She continued, “People talk about your 20s as being a time full of possibilities, but I felt the complete opposite. I felt burdened by possibility and couldn’t make any decisions. Cinematically, I thought this would be a challenging thing to visualize.”
“Namour” marks ARRAY’s most recent acquisition. Launched by “Selma” director Ava DuVernay in 2010, ARRAY was originally known as AFFRM. The LA-based film collective is focused on highlighting works by and about people of color and women. Among the the independent distribution company’s previous credits are Rebecca Johnson’s “Honeytrap,” Sara Blecher’s “Ayanda,” and DuVernay’s own “Middle of Nowhere.”
Beginning March 1, “Namour” will debut on screens nationwide, including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston, Chapel Hill, Seattle, and Honolulu. The coming-of-age film will premiere on Netflix March 15.
Check out the trailer and screening dates below.
03/01–03/02, 03/04 Honolulu Honolulu Museum of Art — Doris Duke Theater
03/06–03/09 Harlem Imagenation Cinema Foundation
03/07 Atlanta Spelman College presented by Bronzelens Film Festival
03/10 Philadelphia United Bank Building presented by ReelBlack
03/14 Washington, DC Anacostia Arts Center present by Parallel Film Collective
03/15 Los Angeles CSULA presented by the Department of Pan-African Studies
03/16 Seattle Ark Lodge Cinema presented by Sankofa Film Society
03/23 Chapel Hill Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History- University of North Carolina
03/30 Houston Houston Museum of African American Culture
