AllMovie

In this average, coming-of-age story, not quite as dramatic as it could be, a 12-year-old boy along with his mother and younger brother go to live with the grandfather in Damascus, a churly, unwelcoming man who leaves the support of the family to the grandson. In order to make ends meet, the boy works for a tailor, and after a few years he has changed considerably -- and so has Syria, coming of age along with him. If these two parallel stories had been more obviously integrated, director Mohamad Malas would have had a more effective film.