Mike Elsherif

Writer
Director
Actor

Laila, a Palestinian-American drummer, visits her grandmother in her new apartment during a powerful storm under the guise of helping her unpack. But her nefarious goals slowly unfold as they delve deeper into the mystical night full of Turkish coffee fortune readings, maqluba, and past trauma. The film is a macabre fable about two generations of Palestinian immigrants struggling to deal with displacement, life in the diaspora, and mortality.

Play demo reel0:46

MAQLUBA Trailer

Mike Elsherif is an award-winning Palestinian-American filmmaker who immigrated to America from Kuwait following the Persian Gulf War. His films explore themes of displacement, identity, and mortality and have screened at national and international film festivals, including BlackStar, Woodstock, and El Gouna. His projects have been supported by the Doha Film Institute, the Islamic Scholarship Fund, FilmLab Palestine, Cinephilia Productions, and the Kentucky Arts Council. He's also been a Rawi Fellow at the Rawi Screenwriters Lab in Jordan held by the Royal Film Commission, an Al Smith Fellow selected by the Kentucky Arts Council, a Writer-in-Residence at The New Harmony Project, a COLLIDER Artist-in-Residence through the Louisville Free Public Library, and an Artist-in-Residence at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. Mike is a graduate of the University of North Carolina - School of the Arts School of Filmmaking with a concentration in Film Directing. He's also the recipient of the Arab America Foundation's 40 Under 40 Prize.