Ali Al Jenabi

History

ALI AL JENABI, an asylum seeker from Iraq, fled his country over twenty years ago at the height of the Iraq war. His indomitable spirit, vitality and charisma contribute to a most extraordinary first screen performance. He was brought to the attention of the director at Sydney Writers Festival when he spoke at the book launch of a biography that tells his life story, THE PEOPLE SMUGGLER by Robyn de Crespigny, published by Penguin.

Movies

Damage

Ali

Ali is not a citizen. He drives a taxi using another man’s license and relies on the GPS to negotiate his way around a city he doesn’t know. His passenger, Esther is an old woman who can’t remember where she is going. She is angry because she has been stripped of everything that is familiar to her and she doesn't recognise the world anymore. They travel through the night in search of a vague destination while surveillance cameras mark their journey, coldly omitting the human element, defining who belongs and who does not, who is safe and who is not. What they have in common is their damage – she can’t remember and he can’t forget.