Palestinian filmmakers Najwa Najjar and Cherien Dabis met at Sundance Institute’s 2005 Middle East Screenwriters Lab in Jordan. Najjar, who is based in Ramallah, was working on her first feature project Pomegranates and Myrrh, about Kamar, a dancer whose husband is imprisoned soon after they are married because he refuses to give up his land. Dabis, who is based in Brooklyn, was also at the Lab writing a first feature, Amreeka, the story of Muna Farah, a Palestinian single mom fighting to maintain hope amidst the daily grind of life in the West Bank.

Even when he eventually ventures into longer format storytelling, director Patrik Eklund, director of the beguiling short Instead of Abracadabra, doesn’t plan to give up short form content. “I love the format and the freedom,” says the Sweden-based filmmaker, who heads to Park City with a film that sheds comedic light on and reveals the heart in the timeless practice of magic.
Instead of Abracadabra is the hilarious, endearing story of a 20-something slacker who lives at home with his disapproving parents and has only one goal: to be a great magician.