Céline Roustan

Simo is Emad’s little brother. The two Egyptian-Canadian teenagers share a room and as one would expect with teenage boys, tensions can arise. Tired of being smaller and younger and the indignities that go with that, Simo acts out. But, he goes too far and the consequences will befall his entire family. We already have featured Aziz Zoromba’s work on S/W as a producer (No Crying at the Dinner Table), and he is now back as a writer/director with Simo—a layered coming-of-age tale where themes of immigration, identity, and masculinity all collide in an enthralling narrative. 

The description of the plot is necessarily vague to avoid spoilers, but Zoromba describes his film as a “personal exploration of teenage-hood”. On the surface, while incredibly universal, teenagers coming into their own has got to be one of the most frequently used tropes in storytelling. However, where Simo sets itself apart is the titular character’s environment. His is a three-person household and between his father and his barely older brother, he struggles with figuring out who he is, torn between his Egyptian heritage and constantly being in Emad’s shadow. No one would expect a single father and two teenage boys to construct the most emotionally nurturing or sensitive dynamic, but what Zoromba depicts is how, in certain situations, they will come together and stand for and with each other. “It is an intimate look into an immigrant family’s resilience and the power they hold when united”, he explains.

The event that ultimately shakes the status quo stems from being seen as an Arab in the Western world—laced with hints of racism and xenophobia. However, interestingly, Zoromba chooses to not capture that part of the story. Instead, he focuses on the event’s repercussions in the aftermath and how the family will overcome what happened. 

The strength of the film is in the portraits of Simo and his family. While they are one family unit, all three male characters are incredibly different, with different interests. Zoromba built his characters from the three “elements that defined that period for me: music, video games, & football”, and while it seems conventional, especially when representing masculinity through those three elements, he also injects each character with an attachment to their Egyptian culture. Ultimately, despite playing with ordinary elements, Zoromba is able to imbue this world with great specificity via the sharply observed authenticity that he brings to these men. 

The production as a whole is stellar too. The film has an impressive visual look that Zoromba crafted with his DP, Alexandre Nour Desjardins. The sleek and polished style is then complemented by an edit that supplies mounting tension only to contrast it later with quietness in the aftermath. The soundtrack is a highlight for me, and was carefully chosen. If you feel like digging deeper into Egyptian rap, the film team curated a special playlist. 

But, ultimately, it is the characters and through them, the performances, that allow the film to be so emotionally compelling. All three actors: Basel El Rayes, Seif El Rayes, and Aladeen Tawfeek, share a chemistry that makes the family dynamic feel so genuine. From the siblings’ rivalry to a father desperately trying to connect with his kids because they’re growing up so fast, there is a nary of false or superfluous emotional beat in Simo and despite little that is truly novel in the film, Zoromba has nonetheless crafted one of the most exquisite family dramas of recent memory.

Simo is coming off a sensational festival run that made it one of the most acclaimed Canadian films of the past couple of years. The film had its World Premiere at the 2022 edition of TIFF where it won the Best Canadian Short Film Award. This was followed by numerous high-profile selections including Sundance, Berlinale Generation, FNC, and Palm Springs, with a win at the Canadian Screen Awards along the way. This week it made its online debut as part of the New Yorker collection in time to promote its status as a contender in the Best Live Action Short Oscar race (you can see our collection of S/W-featured contenders on Shortverse). Good luck to Zoromba and his team. Meanwhile, the filmmaker is hard at work on multiple projects, including a feature extrapolation of Simo.