The Tower

Eleven-year-old Wardi is worried about her beloved great-grandfather Sidi. It is not only that he is old, but now he has also given her the key that he always used to carry with him. Like many Palestinians, Sidi was forced to leave his home during the war with Israel in 1948 and has since lived in the Bourj el-Barajneh refugee camp near Beirut, where Wardi also grew up. The key to his old house was always a sign of his hope for a later return. Now Wardi fears that her great-grandfather might have lost all hope and courage. In search of an idea as to how she could help him, Wardi begins asking her family and relatives about the past. Through their stories, she finally understands how her family has lived in exile since the forced displacement.
The debut feature film by the Norwegian animator Max Grorud is composed of personal memories of Wardi’s relatives, like the floors of the high-rise where they all live together. It is clearly evident that Grorud got to know the place and the people personally when he studied at the American University of Beirut in the 1990s. He conveys the different time periods and protagonists’ life experiences through various animation techniques: we experience Wardi’s current life in the camp in handmade décor and puppet animation; the girl, in turn, imagines her family’s stories in a mixture of cartoons and photographs. By telling the narrative from a child’s perspective who puts herself in the shoes of adults, Grorud’s film is equally accessible to young and old alike. The film was awarded a Peace Prize at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival and has already been screened in several refugee camps in Lebanon.