Adam (writer/director Shady Srour) is thoroughly in love with his wife Lamia (Laëtitia Eïdo), but that doesn’t make him a successful businessman. He needs money now more than ever as they’re experiencing a difficult pregnancy while his father is gravely ill. Adding the small daily misfortunes he encounters as an Arab Christian in Nazareth means Adam could really use a big break. He finds one where he least expects it: on the biblical hilltop Mount Precipice. He embarks on his latest, riskiest business venture: bottling the holy air and selling it to the city’s tourists.

A colorful snapshot of modern-day Nazareth, Holy Air examines the complicated emotions that go into living as a modern, progressive family on the world’s most spiritual ground. All around swirls the challenging social crosscurrents that Adam will need to navigate to get his idea off the ground: Catholic capitalists, Jewish bureaucrats, Muslim gangsters. Srour and Eïdo deliver remarkable and unflinching performances in this endearing comedy on spirituality, ideology, and survival—and which of the three must be sacrificed to preserve the others.

—Jule Rozite

Directed by

Shady Srour