As a child, I had the same haircut as my father. But as I grew older and my hair grew longer and longer, it became an object of contention between us — a metaphorical battleground over adolescent anxieties and the pressure to conform.
After my father had a stroke, I wanted us to laugh together. Even though we don’t always agree on things, he loves animation. So making “S the Wolf” was a way to revisit our past struggles over my hair, to joke about them and to transform memories into something new.
In the film above, I try to get closer to unspoken or hidden emotions that I’ve rarely expressed out loud, either out of shame or uncertainty about whom I could trust. I hope that by sharing my story, we find that we are more alike, and see humor in the heaviness.
Sameh Alaa is a Cannes-winning filmmaker from Egypt.
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