Laila's Birthday
"At eight o'clock, it's Laila's birthday, okay?" Palestinian judge turned cab driver Abu Laila's wife reminds her husband. But on his young daughter's birthday, like any day, Abu faces a nerve-wracking shift in a Ramallah yellow cab armed only with an ex-jurist's misplaced pride, a father's loyalty, and a sticker reminding passengers that smoking and carrying AK-47s are prohibited. Rather than address politics or document holy war heroics and villainy, Laila's Birthday focuses on the toll that the unending Palestinian-Israeli conflict extracts from civilians clinging to both employment and a semblance of normal life amidst chaos and corruption, missile attacks and bursts of gunfire.
- Year: 2009
- Country: Netherlands, Tunisia, Palestinian Territory
- Genre: Drama
- Studio: Cinema Production Center, Cinétéléfilms, Sweetwater Pictures, Fortissimo Films, BrunBro Films
- Keyword: palestine, birthday, taxi driver
- Director: Rashid Masharawi
- Cast: Mohammad Bakri, Areen Omari, Nour Zoubi, Saleh Bakri, Walid Abed Elsalam, Mahmoud Awadd