Simple Stories for a Complicated World: An Interview with Filmmaker Izidore Musallam

<jats:p>Film and television director, writer, and producer Izadore Musallam’s work stretches across national boundaries and explores shifting identities.1 Born and raised in the Middle East and educated as a filmmaker in North America, he continues to reside in Canada while making English and Arabic-language films at home and abroad. Musallam’s debut feature Foreign Nights (1989) dealt with cultural and generational clashes within the Arab diaspora with the story of a Canadian teen dancer and her traditional Palestinian parents; his follow-up Nothing to Lose (1994) is a gangster spoof about a French Canadian boxer. Heaven Before I Die (1997) is a comedy about a young man from Palestine who moves to Toronto, receives advice from the ghost of Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran played by Omar Sharif, and gets a job as a Charlie Chaplin imitator. Forbidden Fruit (2002) is an updated Adam and Eve story of the seduction of a priest.</jats:p>