The chant

The chant - أهازيج
20 minutes | Jordan | 2024


Synopsis

The chant is a jordanian short film, it follows three neighbors from different age groups that interconnect with each other on a course of one day.

the characters are brought together by Mariam, a woman in her 70s that suffers from Alzaheimers and nostalgic for her past. Mariam keeps following a sound that she believes it’s a calling from her anscestors for an old practise where they used to chant for the rain to fall in dry seasons. The second story is about Aya, a woman in her 30’s, She and her husband are trying to conceive a baby through IVF. on this day, and on her fourth attempt, they are waiting for the results to come out.

The third story is about a teenager, Haneen, she unexpectedy gets a visit from her friend Leen, who never visited her before. As Haneeen tries to hide some stuff that belongs to her father around the house. We eventually find out that her father is a dwarf.

As these three stories reach their climax with their struggles, Mariam goes on the building’s roof and starts chanting her anscestors song, believing that it will rain. Despite people’s laughter at her at the beginning. Eventually, we see everyone in the neighborhood coming out from their balconies/ windows including Aya and Haneen as they chant with Mariam, reviving their hope and overcoming their struggles when it starts to rain.

Director - May Ghouti

May Al Ghouti is a Jordanian writer and director whose films explore identity, loss, and resilience through poetic realism. In 2019, she was selected for the Rawi Screenwriters Lab to develop her debut feature screenplay Landslide. Her first short film, Huda, won the Black Iris Award for Best Short Film at the Amman International Film Festival – Awal Film (2020).

In 2023, she directed and produced The Chant, which won Best Short Film at the Hollywood Arab Film Festival (USA), received a Special Mention at Pyramax, and was officially selected at the Cairo, Toronto Arab, Calgary, AFAQ (Germany), and KARAMA (Jordan) Film Festivals. It also premiered Out of Competition at the Amman International Film Festival.

Al Ghouti is currently developing her debut feature Sound of the North, which received the 2025 Jordan Film Fund Development Grant.