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Ambush Shorts Review VIFF2025-14

Ambush Shorts Review VIFF2025-14

Title: Ambush

Foreign Title: Kameen

Year: 2025

Country: Canada/Jordan

Language: In Arabic with English subtitles

Awards:

Director: Yassmina Karajah

Credits: 

In the backstreets of Amman, Jordan, the old and new collide in a celebration of youth culture. On one rooftop, working-class locals sit smoking hookah, watching as a nearby warehouse transforms into a pop-up techno club. Across the street, a group of younger partiers drink vodka and pop pills. Despite their differences, both groups grapple with the same struggles of intimacy, self-definition, and peer pressure.

Hasan, from one side of the street, tries to reconnect with a fleeting encounter who no longer returns his calls. On the other hand, Jena fights to stay sober and resist addiction. For a brief moment their eyes meet, offering a spark of hope — but then dawn arrives, and the night slips away.

Though much tension builds, little actually happens; we are left lingering in the quiet space of their lives. The film is sharply shot and edited, contrasting musical styles and balancing rapid jump cuts with long takes and close-ups. The layering of tradition and modernity, English and Arabic, results in a gentle, atmospheric portrait of the city and its youth.

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