Bara El Manhag

Nour, a thirteen-year-old orphan in early 1980s rural Egypt, is clever but plagued by poor eyesight and glasses that barely help. He is also a compulsive liar. Desperate to earn his classmates' respect, he dares to enter the derelict house opposite the school—a place all the children fear is haunted. Inside, he finds not ghosts, but a solitary old man hiding from the world. An unexpected friendship and apprenticeship blossom between them, launching the boy on a journey of profound self-discovery.