52 Films by Women Vol 9. 32. Sink (Director: Zain Duraie)
Pictured : Basil ( Mohammad Nizar , left) and his mother, Nadia ( Clara Khoury , right) enjoy a moment of calm in the Jordanian mental health drama, ' Sink ', written and directed by Zain Duraie . Still courtesy of Unifrance (France) / London Film Festival (UK) I don’t know anyone immediately requesting films made by women about families coping with teenagers with troubling mental health conditions but two have arrived at once. Sink (Gharaq), the debut feature film from Jordanian writer-director Zain Duraie, charts a mother’s attempt to deal with her eldest son’s mental collapse without the aid of medical diagnosis. As with Sophy Romvari’s Blue Heron , a lot of the action takes place in the home. Here, the teenager, Basil (Mohammad Nizar) struggles with the pressure of his upcoming exams, although it is suggested that he was a loner long before his classroom blow-up. During a lesson, he describes a medical procedure, reading from index cards at a fast pace while pointing to h...