Reasons for hopeless love vary from era to era, and from society to society. Sometimes love cannot be acted upon or expressed because of social or political reasons. Such cases are where love stories morph into social dramas. Qays and Layla, college students in the West Bank, fall in love. Unfortunately, Qays cannot get permission from Layla’s parents to get married because he lives in a refugee camp. Qays proposes to Layla anyway, which only infuriates her strict Muslim family and gets her in trouble. As a last resort, they decide to elope outside the country. But all their attempts are met with failure. Director Susan Youssef intended to present a strong and active Arab woman who tries to overcome difficulties on her own through this love story, and to depict the slowly changing Palestinian society in a straightforward manner. The scene where Qays recites a poem introduces the beauty of Palestinian literature. Even though Qays and Layla’s love was ill fated their story shows that hope is still out there. (KIM Ji-seok)