A middle-aged divorced father discovers that he needs to undergo an emergency operation for a twisted testicle, which he cannot afford. Having gambled away everything he earned as a successful care salesman in Amman, Yousef (Ali Suliman) lives alone in poverty, working as a taxi driver, stealing electricity from a neighbor to brew coffee and enduring his sleazy boss's degradations and double-dealings with ironic stoicism.

Much is in motion on the eve of Yousef's surgery. A Last Supper with Islamic background, where Friday has multiple meanings as holy day, protest day, strike day.

First, his teen-age son (Fadi Arida) comes to stay with him, hiding out from Yousef's ex-wife (Yasmine Al Masri), now married to a powerful, invisible husband. Yousef discovers that his son is nearly illiterate, a habitual truant from his expensive private school.

On television and radio, we hear strange ideas about romance and love, where women have the upper hand, while Yousef has coffee on the veranda, playing solitaire backgammon, outside his pitifully empty bedroom.

The first Jordanian film screened at Berlinale, Al Juma Al Akheira first took form in Paris, where director-screenwriter Yahya Alabdallah studied at the International Film and Television School EICAR.

Working on a 100,000 euro budget, Alabdallah has turned in a well-written, well-acted, beautifully photographed film that casts a perceptive gaze on a society in crisis, with a focus on the drama and comedy of everyday life that will be recognizable to audiences worldwide.

Mirror post: http://blog.williamaveryhudson.com/?p=954

The Last Friday is a well-thought-out piece of filmmaking that fails to take that crucial friendly step towards its audience. Its bleak take on individual isolation in a cold modern society won post-production financing at San Sebastian this year, followed by the Special Jury Award and two other prizes at the Dubai Film Festival. Beyond the Arab world, however, the downbeat subject will make it a hard sell with audiences, though this first feature should earn director Yahya Al Abdallah the attention of fest programmers. A little disappointingly, there's little that is specifically Jordanian in this sober tale set in Amman, whose story could be told in any modern metropolis. Yousef (played by Ali Suliman, a veteran familiar from the films of Elia Suleiman as well as Body of Lies) has only a few days to find money for a crucial surgical operation. A compulsive gambler, he lost his home, his wife (the beautiful Yasmine Al Masri of Caramel) and all his savings years ago at the poker table. Even his job as a car showroom salesman has been downgraded to that of a company driver. Though the back story is implicit rather than spelled out, it explains and nuances Yousef's estrangement from society and his family. The urgency of the moment forces him out of his solitude and on a hurried search for money. Paralleling his wasted life is that of his unpromising teenage son Emad (Fadi Arida), who cuts school, steals from Dad's wallet and generally screws up. Both Suliman's morose, uncompromising father and young Arida's brash but insecure son are painfully on target, generating a convincingly destructive father-son chemistry. Suliman's strong, nearly wordless characterization of Yousef as a loser who struggles with misplaced pride and self-sacrifice won him best actor kudos at Dubai. It's night a lot in this dark drama, finely captured on digital blown up to 35mm by D.P. Rachel Aoun. The long-held shots of the sober, fixed-frame camera-work tend to stretch on and on. Underscoring the action is a mellow, award-winning soundtrack by Le Trio Joubran. Venue: Dubai Film Festival (Muhr Arab Feature competition) Cast: Ali Suliman, Yasmine Al Masri Production companies: The Royal Film Commission Jordan in association with ME Films, Dubai Film Market (Enjaaz) Director: Yahya Al Abdallah Screenwriters: Yahya Al Abdallah Producers: Rula Nasser, Majd Hijjawi, Yahya Al Abdallah Executive producers: George David, Mohammad Al Bakri Director of photography: Rachel Aoun Production designer: Samir Zaidan Music: Le Trio Jubran Editor: Mohammad Suleiman Sales Agent: The Royal Film Commission Jordan No rating, 88 minutes

I never seen performance like this, there is no senario and story, they should delete this film