Jordan Selects Doc ‘My Sweet Land’ For Int’l Feature Film Race

Jordan has selected Sareen Hairabedian’s documentary My Sweet Land to represent it in the Best International Feature Film category of the 97th Academy Awards.

The documentary follows 11-year-old Vrej, who dreams of becoming a dentist in his village in Artsakh in the region Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been at the heart of a violent dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia since the 1980s.

When conflict erupts again, Vrej and his family flee, only to return to a devastated homeland after their people lost the war. As Vrej faces the new harsh realities and prepares for future battles, he wrestles with the weight of his hopes and trauma. 

The film is New York-based Jordanian-Armenian director Hairabedian’s debut feature and follows her 40-minute doc We Are Not Done Yet for HBO documentary which won several awards.

The Sweet Land premiered at the Sheffield DocFest earlier this year ahead of playing a number of festivals including the Amman International Film Festival in July, where it won the Jury Award for Best Feature Documentary and the FIPRESCI Award for Best Feature Length Arab Documentary.

The documentary is produced by Azza Hourani under the banner of HAI Creative in co-production with Sister Productions and Soilsíu Films, a co-production of ITVS in association with ARTE France and World of HA Productions.

Hourani has worked as a producer and assistant director for 15 years, with credits including Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider, Abu Bakr Shawky’s Hajjan and Amjad Al Rasheed’s Inshallah A Boy, Jordan’s entry for the 96th Academy Awards.

Co-producers are Julie Paratian and David Rane. Executive producers are Beth Levison, Carrie Lozano, Hallee Adelman, Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh. Robina Riccitiello is co-EP.

The selection was made by a committee overseen by the Royal Film Commission – Jordan (RFC).