OUT OF WATER
A coming-of-age about the childhood, teendom, and adulthood of a young woman growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to an American mother and Syrian-born Muslim father. When Layla’s grandpa arrives from Syria, her relationships with her family members and her identities, including her sexuality, are tested.
Development | USA | Narrative | 90 minutes | English
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY KARINA DANDASHI
PRODUCED BY AYA HAMDAN
OUT OF WATER is semi-autobiographical to my own story coming of age. Like the protagonist, I grew up in a multicultural immigrant household in Pittsburgh, PA. My father was born in Damascus, Syria, and my mother was born in the Dominican Republic to an American father and a Bolivian mother.
The film will explore the walls that exist not only between immigrant parents and their children, but between the parents themselves. The film will be exploring themes such as intergenerational and cultural disconnect, sexuality, and coming of age in diaspora.
I envision the film to have a visual and tonal style similar to angsty coming of age classics such as LADY BIRD or THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER. I also want to find a way to incorporate more whimsical and surreal moments, like how Barry Jenkins breaks the fourth wall in MOONLIGHT or cuts to moody flashbacks. I want to break convention once in a while. I want to be playful in these moments, not give in to a cookie-cutter drama with all the right beats on cue. Layla’s coming of age is messy, it’s magical.
- Karina Dandashi
PARTNERS
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2022 Film Independent Producing Lab
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2023 Artist Development Grant
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2023 IFFR Lab
TEAM
Karina Dandashi
Writer / Director
Karina Dandashi is an Arab-American Muslim filmmaker born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Her films explore nuances in identity through the intersection of family, religion, and culture in Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) and Muslim communities in America. Her work has been featured in numerous Oscar-qualifying festivals around the U.S. and has recently screened at The Museum of Modern Art. Karina is a 2020 Creative Culture Fellow at The Jacob Burns Film Center and a 2021 Sundance Ignite Fellow. She was featured in Marie Claire’s inaugural Creators Issue as one of the “Top 21 Creators to Watch” in 2022.
Aya Hamdan
Producer
Aya Hamdan is a Palestinian-Bahraini producer based in Brooklyn, NY. She founded 10 Mils Productions, through which she leverages her business background, the power of story, and her commitment to representation in the media to support storytellers from her communities.
Aya co-produced Dunya’s Day, which won the short film Jury Award for International Fiction at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. She produced Dress Up which was supported by Sundance Ignite and The Jacob Burns Film Center’s Creative Culture Fellowship. In 2022, it screened at Oscar®-qualifying festivals and The Museum of Modern Art. Dress Up explores themes present in Aya’s upcoming debut feature film in development, Out of Water.