Die Welt

Abdallah is a 19-year-old kid lucky to have a crap job at a “video store” renting pirated DVDs of Hollywood blockbusters to people who don’t give a damn when he explains that Transformers 2 misrepresents Arabs. Ultimately, he schemes with his buddies to illegally sneak into Europe to find work and fortune. Taking place just after the Jasmine Revolution in a “new” Tunisia where opportunity is a double-edged socioeconomic sword, this is an exceptionally smart and funny film about a place and a people inching toward some vague idea of democracy and having no idea what that means for them. (MATT LYNCH)