Set in a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem, 'Lesh Sabreen?' tells the story of two young lovers as they navigate dreams and dead-ends in their socially-conservative and Israeli-controlled community. The film illustrates the several layers of authority, from the patriarchal social norms and taboos, to economic pressures and the military occupation, continually facing young Arab Jerusalemites.

Sabreen and Ayman dream of being together. But without true economic opportunities, Ayman will never be able to care for Sabreen in a way that her father would approve. And with the power structures conspiring to restrain their dreams, will the young lovers muster the imagination to realize their hopes for the future?

"Lesh Sabreen?" is a title with a dual meaning that cannot be captured fully in translation. The filmmakers decided to keep it transliterated but not translated and to let its meaning reveal itself through experiencing the film.
Lesh in the Palestinian dialect of Arabic means why.
Sabreen has two meanings:
- It is a female name that is a variant of Sabrina. That is the name of the main female character.
- It is the capacity, habit or fact of being patient.

The title "Lesh Sabreen?" has the meaning of "Why Sabreen?", a question that comes to Ayman's mind as he realizes the scale of what it takes to save their relationship. But it is more importantly a question that challenges the social and political status quo with which they have been putting up.The stories, events and characters that make up "Lesh Sabreen?" represent the experiences of an entire generation of young Palestinians, specially Palestinian Jerusalemites like myself. It shows the interplay between social, economic and political factors that seem to subconsciously reinforce each other and limit the young Palestinians' prospects and hopes for the future.

On the one hand, there is the struggle with our own patriarchal society with its religious taboos and tradition. On the other hand, there is the lack of financial independence which seems impossible to overcome due to the low paying service jobs that are most accessible to Palestinians in Israeli economy. The economic reality in turn also limits the effectiveness of education as a way to a better life for many young Palestinians in Jerusalem. Any attempt to go around these social and economic limits often collides with the political situation be it through the occupation policies or the lack of mobility and the constant monitoring by the Israeli army that tries to keep Palestinians in check. Effectively, young Palestinians experience a sense of entrapment.

"Lesh Sabreen?" is the product of 4 years of script writting, development, fund raising and production. I started writing the script when I was going to film school in San Francisco and developed it with the help of my brother, screenwriter Rami Musa Alayan. The production was the collective effort of 30 cast and crew members from Palestine, Israel and San Francisco in the US. My ex-mentor, cinematographer Christian Bruno, and my ex-classmate filmmaker Carlos Isael, kindly flew from San Francisco to Jerusalem to help with the production and later helped through-out the post-production.

"Lesh sabreen?" was shot on location in my village, Beit Safafa, the only Palestinian village to survive the 1948 war and remain in west Jerusalem. It is now considered a neighborhood of the larger city of Jerusalem but the contrast between its village nature and its surrounding commercial centers and Israeli settlements is still very clear. The contrast in landscape and space is captured in the film. We tried to show the older and organic Palestinian village nature with its old and sometimes run-down houses, its fields and its animals, and the larger scale modern surrounding areas. The contrast in landscape and space symbolizes in a lot of ways the economic and political status of the Palestinian community in the city.

As in the case of many independent filmmaking projects - Palestinian films included - the "Lesh Sabreen?" team faced many obstacles from limited budget to lack of access to equipment. However, working on this film in a village community like Beit Safafa opened my eyes to a unique and special style of independent filmmaking which builds on the talents and resources from within the local community and its grass root village culture which is very generous and supportive but also very much about pulling the community together to do what a single person cannot do alone. My father fixed the cables for the gaffers. My cousin, who is an expert in setting up village weddings and outdoor family parties, was our location manager. My mother, my aunts and their neighbors took care of the catering. Many people were also eager to invite the crew into their home for meals. Add to that the non-professional actors from the village who became part of the cast and the many more extras volunteering to be in the film.

I believe this style of filmmaking resonated a lot with my friends from San Francisco, Christian Bruno and Carlos Isael, who come from a grass root independent filmmaking community and were very happy to step up and help make "Lesh Sabreen?" happen.

"It takes a village to raise a child" is a local saying I heard many times in Beit Safafa. Working on "Lesh Sabreen?" showed me that it also takes a village to make a film.

Christian Bruno's films have played around the world, from Needles, CA to Tehran, Iran. The short documentary Pie Fight '69 (made with Sam Green) received numerous awards, including from the Sundance, Black Maria, and Chicago Underground Film Festivals, and continues to play worldwide. He has received commissions from the SF Arts Commission for film and film-based installations, and is a recent fellow of the MacDowell Colony. As a cinematographer, Christian's work appears in Natalija Vekic's award-winning short Lost & Found, and the 2007 feature films Revolution Summer by Miles Montalbano, and David Lewis' Rock Haven. He lives in San Francisco.