“A Christmas Dream” is the name of what is described as Sweden’s first Christmas film with an immigrant perspective. The initiative is led by Kurdish poet and director Arazo Arif.
With a Kurdish initiator and a Kurdish main character, the film naturally centers around a Kurdish girl. The inspiration for the story, about a Kurdish girl’s imagination about Christmas and a single father, is said to come from Arif’s own childhood.
The father, a newly arrived migrant who wants to create a real Swedish Christmas for his daughter Zhala, is played by the controversial Özz Nujen. The foundation of the film is to tell a story about people with an immigrant background where they get to be complex, a perspective that Arazo Arif says she finds lacking.
READ ALSO: Özz Nujen: Swedes should thank immigrants
“I unfortunately believe it has very fateful consequences if you don’t get to experience stories where people who don’t look like you or have the same life experience can also be good people,” she tells public radio.
The film is primarily aimed at children, but Arif hopes it will also appeal to other target audiences. For the adult audience, Arif hopes it raises questions and thoughts about “where we are headed as a society and what is important to us.”
SVT’s Fixed Christmas Programming
“The goal is for it to become part of SVT’s fixed Christmas programming,” she tells DN.
Ideally, she wants to see her film among the classics like Donald Duck and Karl-Bertil Jonsson.
“I really want these experiences to count as part of the Swedish experience – because it is now a Swedish experience.”
The film was shown on SVT Play, SVT1, and SVT2 around Christmas in December.
READ ALSO: Özz Nujen makes theater from kebab conflict