Pairing the excitement of reality-show programming with the urgency of real-world drama, The Idol is an entertaining, thought-provoking look at how even in the most dire and desperate circumstances we humans seek some kind of transcendence-sometimes, winning a singing competition will do.

Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, who previously directed the Oscar®-nominated Paradise Now (2005) and Omar, tells the fictionalized story of Mohammad Assaf (Tawfeek Barhom), a young Gazan man who won Arab Idol in 2013. The movie chronicles Mohammad's desire to be a singer and his quest to take part in the popular TV show-which proves to be no easy task since Arab Idol shoots in Egypt and he doesn't have a visa.

The Idol is more crowd-pleasing than Abu-Assad's searing, despairing earlier movies, but they all share the filmmaker's concern for people whose destinies are determined by the political unrest surrounding them. In Mohammad, the director has found an inspiring subject, and in Barhom we have an eminently likeable actor who easily wins us over, playing a dreamer who becomes a hero to his fellow disillusioned Gazans.