Wet Dog

<img src="https://data.ajff.org/sites/default/files/2022-01/web_embed_Laurel_JuryInCompetition_02.png" style="max-width: 20%; width: 20%; border-width: 0px; margin-left: 10px; float: right;" />When his family moves into a multicultural Berlin neighborhood, an Iranian-­Jewish teenager struggles to earn his place in a Muslim gang. To the dismay of his émigré parents, 16-year-old Soheil finds acceptance on the streets, dominated by graffiti, fights and petty crimes. As a means of self-preservation, he hides his Jewish background to fit in with his Muslim peers, rising in the ranks but under constant threat of exposure. As he falls in love with a Turkish schoolmate, Soheil experiences the anguish of anti-Semitism and an ultimate reckoning over his true self. Transposing Arye Sharuz Shalicar’s 1990s-set memoir to present day, this coming-of-age drama explores the provocative intersection of conformity, bigotry and friendship.