Mike Elsherif is a Palestinian American filmmaker who immigrated to the U.S. from his birthplace in Kuwait after the Persian Gulf War. His work explores themes of the immigrant experience, displacement, and mortality. His new film “Maqluba” will screen at the Flyover Film Festival in July.
“Maqluba” was produced in Louisville with a local crew and features the director’s 83-year-old Palestinian mother in her debut performance. The narrative follows Laila (Rand Faris), a Palestinian-American drummer, who visits her grandmother in her new apartment during a storm on the pretext of helping her unpack. But Laila’s nefarious intentions are slowly revealed as grandmother and granddaughter go further into an increasingly mystical night.
“Maqluba” (an Arabic term for “upside down”) is a traditional Levantine dish made of meat, rice, and vegetables cooked in a pot which is flipped upside down when served. Similarly, this 28-minute short film inverts audience expectations of the Palestinian American immigrant experience. “The film is a darkly comic, macabre Palestinian fable about two generations of immigrants struggling to deal with trauma, displacement, and life in the diaspora,” Elsherif said.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking, Elsherif has since been a Rawi Fellow at the Rawi Screenwriters Lab in Jordan; an Al Smith Fellow selected by the Kentucky Arts Council; a Writer-in-Residence at The New Harmony Project; a COLLIDER Artist-in-Residence through Louisville Free Public Library; and an Artist-in-Residence at Bernheim Forest and Arboretum. He also received the Sunbird Stories Production Award by FilmLab Palestine and Cinephilia Productions and the 40 Under 40 Prize by the Arab America Foundation.
“Maqluba” is a visually subtle yet topically complex film. The intimate framing is illuminated by a dreamlike light design, while its narrative theme of lives being turned upside down is made literal by unexpected camera movement. It has already been celebrated at film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival, El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt, Chicago Palestine Film Festival, CAAMFest in San Francisco, and Palestine Cinema Days. It will also be screened at the Oscar-qualifying BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia. If it wins an award at BlackStar, it will qualify for an Academy Award nomination.
While developing the film, Elsherif struggled to cast a performer to play the role of the grandmother. So he asked his own mother, Amineh Elsherif, if she might be interested in auditioning for the part. “She said yes, and then I asked her why.” Elsherif said. “She replied, ‘I want people to remember me by something after I die.'”
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Amineh Elsherif dedicated an appreciable part of her life to the culinary arts, working as the pastry chef at Lily’s Bistro in the Highlands for 20 years. After the restaurant closed in June 2020, she was left without a creative outlet or a way to express herself. “I believe she was interested in auditioning for several reasons: she loves film, especially Bollywood films; she wanted an outlet for her creativity; and she wanted to help out her son,” Elsherif said.
As he explored his family history with his mother, he learned more about her past and the trauma she had endured as a Palestinian woman. “Her bond with her co-actress was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever witnessed,” Elsherif said. The performers began to think of each other as family and developed a deep affection for each other. “When they finally met on set after rehearsing via Zoom for so long, they talked, laughed, and had a wonderful time. Everyone on set also began to fall in love with my mother. She became the set grandmother.”
Any time Elsherif was frustrated with the way his mother was delivering a line of dialogue, he would speak with her in Arabic, so the rest of the crew would not be able to understand them. “I wouldn’t say I was harsh, but I was stern” he said. “Then, I would turn to the crew and tell them in English that my mother was ready for another take. She had a lot of raw talent — I just had to keep nudging her in the right direction.”
Before he began filming, Elsherif spent almost an entire year rehearsing with his mother and her co-star, Rand Faris. An Arab actor and poet born in the U.S. and raised in Jordan, Faris now lives in Brooklyn. She was the only person who had to travel to Louisville for the production. The rest of the crew was local.
“The production experience in Louisville was great,” Elsherif said. “Maqluba” was financed primarily through the local Fund for the Arts’ ArtsMatch program, which matches crowdfunding with grants from LG&E and KU Foundation. The production also received funding from the Kentucky Arts Council, as well as a private investor, and in-kind support from FilmLab Palestine in Ramallah.
“Maqluba” will screen as a part of the Flyover x Hyphen: Shorts Block at ACME Artworks (953 S. Clay St.) on Thursday, July 24. Tickets are available now.
This article appears in Jun 20 – Jul 3, 2025.