Birthday (2019)

Birthday is a 28-minute experimental narrative film set in Toronto, following one day in the life of three immigrants - an Afghani woman, a Serbian man, and a Syrian boy who lives with his grandmother. Their lives are interconnected through montage, giving the illusion that they are one family. The day in which the film takes place is the main woman's birthday. At the beginning of the film, it seems that the three characters are one family, and each is preparing to celebrate the woman's birthday. However, as the story moves forward, we gradually realize that they do not know each other, and are in fact strangers who have never met. Although the film's characters have different nationalities, they live in the cosmopolitan city of Toronto. Toronto becomes a space that seems to embrace the characters, while at the same time separating them through the hardships of immigration. However, 'Birthday' acknowledges that in the end, each character must remain within his or her own isolated existence. Accordingly, this film interweaves the lives of three lonely characters together using a unique form of split-screen montage. In doing so, this montage of the lives of the characters could create a new concept of family, approximating the sense of belonging that all these three characters are striving for.