Hot Water

A Lebanese mother and her American son reconnect on a road trip from the Midwest to California in director Ramzi Bashour's unconventional road odyssey. Lubna Azabal delivers a riveting performance as an Arabic language teacher whose troubled teenage son is expelled from high school; she escorts him to his estranged father's home, encountering meaningful people and places along the way. Poetically shot against the American West's wide-open vistas, the film upends traditional ideas of home and belonging with cutting humor and remarkable beauty.