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Leaps and Bounds

Director: Petter Naess
Sweden, 2006, 86 min
In Swedish with English subtitles.
Recommended ages: 11 and up

Fourteen-year-old Azad loves to do the high jump and Swedish gold medal-winning high jumper Kajsa Bergqvist is his hero. After surviving a bomb blast near his home, his parents arrange for him and his younger brother Tigris to travel from Iraq to Berlin. The two brothers end up in Sweden by mistake, when an unscrupulous man tricks them out of their connecting flight tickets. In order to blend in with the family that hides him, he has to pretend that he is nine-years-old. Feeling alone in a new country where he doesn't understand the language, he hopes to be reunited with his real parents and seeks the help of a hot dog vendor, a school friend, and Kajsa Bergqvist. When a friend at school introduces Azad to the high jump team at school, Ali astonishes everybody with his skills, but runs into the problem of how an illegal immigrant can join the team that will compete in Germany. Norwegian director Petter Næss (Elling, 2001) sensitively portrays the loss of homeland and family, and the rewards of new friendships and successes.

www.filmenhoppet.se

Presented with the assistance of the Embassy of Sweden.

Prededed by short film: I Met the Walrus

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