Christy Garland

What Walaa Wants

Part of

Edition 2019 — Movies
Festival
Distribution
Docs del Mes

What Walaa Wants

Christy Garland

2018

86 min.

Canada and Denmark

Arabic

Subtitles: Catalan and Spanish

Watch in Docs a la carte

Walaa, a teenage girl raised in a refugee camp, decides to become one of the few female police officers of the Palestinian security forces.

Topic:

Datasheet

Show

Direction

Christy Garland

Executive Production

Signe Byrge Sørensen, Anita Lee, Waël Kabbani, Penny Charter

Sound

Peter Schultz

Distribution

DocsBarcelona Distribution

Production

Anne Köhncke, Matt Code, Christy Garland, Justine Pimlott

Edition

Michael Aaglund, Graeme Ring

Music

Tom Third

Datasheet

Direction

Christy Garland

Executive Production

Signe Byrge Sørensen, Anita Lee, Waël Kabbani, Penny Charter

Sound

Peter Schultz

Distribution

DocsBarcelona Distribution

Production

Anne Köhncke, Matt Code, Christy Garland, Justine Pimlott

Edition

Michael Aaglund, Graeme Ring

Music

Tom Third

Synopsis

Walaa, a teenage girl raised in a refugee camp, decides to become one of the few female police officers of the Palestinian security forces. Resignation is not part of her vocabulary, but it is not easy for a girl to break all the rules.

Walaa’s story is marked by survival instinct, overcoming numerous obstacles and learning. An intimate portrait that brings us closer to the life of a girl from the age of 15 to 21 who’s willing to get to the end, and is brave enough to question the establishment and the structures of both her environment and the world in general.

About the direction

Christy Garland

Director

Christy Garland has directed award-winning and critically acclaimed documentary features and fiction...

More info

DocsBarcelona Trajectory

2019

DocsBarcelona Festival · Panorama Section

Edició 2019

2019

Docs del Mes · November

Edició 2019

Awards and festivals

Best Documentary · Hot Docs

Canada, 2018

Margaret Mead Filmmaker · Margaret Mead Film Festival

United States, 2018

Edinburgh Film Festival

Scotland, 2018

Christy Garland

What Walaa Wants

Watch the trailer→

Reviews

“

It's a nuanced look at what it means to be young in Palestine, one that reveals how certain truths (namely that of youthful rebellion) are universal.
— Kathleen Sachs · Chicago Reader

“

What Canadian filmmaker Christy Garland does is let this true-life story unfold in a naturalistic way, refusing to take sides in the ongoing and intractable Middle East conflict.
— Bruce DeMara · Toronto Star

“