Part of First Look 2026

SHOWCASE SCREENING

Dir. Ramzi Bashour. 2026, 97 mins. U.S. In English, Arabic, and French with English subtitles.

With Lubna Azabal, Daniel Zolghadri, Dale Dickey, Gabe Fazio.

A Lebanese mother and her American son reconnect as they drive from the Midwest to California in Ramzi Bashour’s unconventional yet deeply satisfying road odyssey. Lubna Azabal (Incendies) gives a riveting, live-wire performance as a tightly wound Arabic language teacher whose troubled teenage son (Daniel Zolghadri) is expelled from high school after a violent incident; she then decides to escort him to the home of his estranged father, leading to meaningful encounters with people and places along the path, most memorably Dale Dickey (Winter’s Bone) as an eccentric yet warm family friend in touch with nature. Poetically shot by Alfonso Herrera Salcedo (Rebuilding) against the grand, wide-open vistas, motels, gas stations, and diners of the country’s beautiful and forbidding west, Hot Water upends traditional ideas of home and belonging with cutting humor and remarkable beauty. 

New York premiere