GHOMEEDA
Short Film
Project Type: Short Film
Project Status: Pre-Production
Screenwriter and Director: Aya Mheidly
Producer: Frederick Balian
Cinematographer: Celine Layous
Production Designer: Youstina Sadek
Casting Director: Hamzah Saman, CSA
LOGLINE
A Lebanese father secretly trains his five-year-old son to hide from danger through games of hide and seek, until ICE agents raid their home and the game he built to protect his son's innocence becomes the only thing that keeps him free.
SYNOPSIS
Wissam, a Lebanese father in his thirties, lives in an abandoned apartment with his five-year-old son Hadi, both undocumented refugees quietly building a life in America and their close friend Jamil. Their days are shaped by small rituals: Arabic coffee, renovation work on the walls, and father and son bonding moments. At the center of their routine is a game of hide and seek, (ghomeeda in Arabic). What looks like play is deliberate preparation. Wissam has carefully built a hiding spot into the walls of the apartment itself, trained Hadi to stay silent, to stay still, to stay hidden. He has wrapped survival in the language of childhood so that his son can learn to protect himself without ever losing his innocence. Hadi thinks they are playing. Wissam knows they are rehearsing.
When a familiar bell on the wall rings without warning, there is no time. ICE agents are at the door. Wissam guides Hadi into the small hole concealed behind the apartment wall, presses their cherished family photograph into his son's hands, and whispers the words he has always used: "Who's going to be the winner this time?"
As agents storm the apartment, Hadi waits in the dark, hearing the chaos, covering his mouth to stifle his giggles, certain his father is coming to find him. He doesn't know this is not the game. Wissam is taken.
Jamil returns to the apartment holding a birthday cake. He finds Hadi, pulls him out, and, unable to explain what has happened to Wissam, sings happy birthday while Hadi's eyes search the room for his father. The film ends on a close-up of Hadi blowing out his candles, his small breath extinguishing the light.
MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Ghomeeda explores the intersection of childhood innocence, parental love, and the ever-present threat of displacement faced by undocumented refugee families in America. At its core, the film examines how a father protects his child's sense of safety and wonder in a world that has denied them belonging.
The central themes are survival, sacrifice, and the preservation of innocence. Hide and seek, ghomeeda in Arabic, becomes the film's governing metaphor: a game of joy that doubles as survival training, a tender lie that keeps a child shielded from an unbearable truth.
This story is urgent. With immigration enforcement intensifying across the U.S., millions of undocumented families live in daily fear of separation. Yet their humanity, their laughter, their love, their rituals, is rarely centered in mainstream narratives. Ghomeeda insists on that humanity without reducing these characters to their legal status.
As a Lebanese filmmaker, I bring both cultural intimacy and personal proximity to this story. The Arabic language, the ritual of coffee, the warmth of chosen family, these are not details borrowed from the outside; they are lived. This authenticity shapes every element of the film, from the bilingual dialogue to the sensory texture of the apartment. I am uniquely positioned to tell this story with the specificity and care it demands, and to bring it to audiences who rarely see their own families reflected on screen.
Meet The Filmmakers
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Aya Mheidly
Screenwriter / Director
Aya Mheidly is a Lebanese-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and director based in Los Angeles. She is the co-founder of The Hollyoud Club, a film club dedicated to bringing Middle Eastern cinema to theaters across Los Angeles, where she has built an engaged community around Arab storytelling and cultural representation. Ghomeeda is her debut short film as director, rooted in her personal connection to the Lebanese diaspora experience and the realities facing undocumented refugee families in America. Her work is driven by a commitment to humanizing stories that are underrepresented in mainstream cinema.
Credits: The Hollyoud Club (Co-Founder / Programmer), Ghomeeda (Screenwriter) -
Frederick Balian
Producer
Frederick Balian is a Los Angeles-based producer with extensive experience across narrative, commercial, and music video production. He has produced content for major brands including Nike, Jordan, ESPN, VRBO, and Monster Energy, as well as music videos for artists including Iann Dior, AG Club, and Colbie Caillat. His narrative credits include the short films Remind Me in an Hour and The Living, both of which received press coverage in Indie Shorts Mag and Directors Notes respectively.
Key Credits: Remind Me in an Hour (Producer, 2022), The Living (Executive Producer, 2021), Jordan | Take It From LA (Producer)
Website: www.frederickhbalian.com -
Celine Layous
Cinematographer
Celine Layous is a Lebanese cinematographer and camera operator based between Los Angeles and Lebanon. She holds an MFA in Cinematography from the AFI Conservatory and brings a deeply personal and grounded visual sensibility to her work, drawn to stories that feel honest and rooted in the everyday. Her experience spans narrative short films, documentary, and commercial work. She is fluent in Arabic, English, and French, making her a uniquely aligned collaborator for Ghomeeda.
Key Credits: Jane (Hulu Series, Camera Operator), Purity Camp (Short Film, DP), Riverman (Short Film, DP)
Website: www.celinelayous.com -
Youstina Sadek
Production Designer
Youstina Sadek is a Los Angeles-based production designer and prop master with over 10 years of experience across scripted, unscripted, and live production. She has built art departments from the ground up in multiple international markets, including productions in Cairo and Rome, and brings a deep versatility to her craft. Her background spans commercial, music video, and narrative work, and she also specializes in food styling and special effects.
Key Credits: Narrative and commercial production design (portfolio at youstinasadek.com), International productions in Cairo and Rome, Commercial and music video art department work across Los Angeles
Website: www.youstinasadek.com -
Shaheen Nazerali
Editor
Shaheen Nazerali is a documentary film editor and filmmaker based in Santa Monica, California. Her post-production credits include work for PBS, HBO, and a Vimeo Staff Pick. She was Editor-in-Residence at SXSW in 2019 and has edited for major outlets including Condé Nast and Vox Creative, where she served as Director of Post Production. Born in the Netherlands to multilingual parents, she speaks five languages and brings a rare sensitivity to cross-cultural storytelling that is deeply aligned with the world of Ghomeeda.
Key Credits: American Masters: Anik Khan (PBS, Editor), A Choice of Weapon: Legacy of Gordon Parks (HBO, Editor), Disruption (Vimeo Staff Pick, Editor)
Website: videoconsortium.org/members/shaheen | vimeo.com/user4759425
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Hamzah Saman, CSA
Casting Director
Hamzah Saman, CSA is a Los Angeles-based casting director and a member of the Casting Society of America. He is the founder of Arab American Casting, the premier casting service in the United States dedicated to connecting filmmakers with talented actors of Middle Eastern, North African, and Southeast Asian (MENASA) descent. The platform counts over 10,000 members and is built on the mission of promoting authentic representation and cultural diversity in the film industry. Hamzah brings a deep network of Arab-American talent and a specific expertise in authentic MENASA casting that is uniquely essential to Ghomeeda, a film requiring culturally specific, Arabic-speaking performers across all three principal roles.
Key Credits: Arab American Casting (Founder/Casting Director), Ajnabiyeh (Casting Director), IMDB credits available at imdb.me/Hamzah
Website: www.arabamericancasting.com | imdb.me/Hamzah
Your Help
GHOMEEDA is a fiscally sponsored project of Cinematography for Actors, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donation will be tax-deductible!