Film director Ahmad (Massad) has sold his parents' home to leave what he calls "this hell hole" the Palestinian territories. Before he goes he is persuaded by a friend to accept one last job: to find Palestinian actors for the new National Palestinian Theatre his friend is in the process of building. Put in touch with TV news presenter Bissan (Omari) and cameraman Loumir (Baroud), the three of them travel across various borders and checkpoints to refugee camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Here the weary and fed-up Ahmad experiences all the things he hates about life in Palestine: imposing and aggressive searches at checkpoints and borders, barricades, and constant tension. When he finally gets to audition what he believes are out of work actors, he finds most are simply looking for a way to get back to the homeland Palestine or to pass messages to loved ones they haven't heard from in years. 'Waiting' is a euphemism for many things; from the actors waiting in line for their audition, the crew waiting at endless checkpoints, and Palestinians everywhere waiting to become a united people once again.

For western audiences used to learning about Palestinian life mainly through the latest suicide bombing on the news, Attente is an enlightening and accessible insight into conditions Palestinians live under and the personalities they have developed to cope with this. Clearly passionate about his people and their plight, Masharawi (who was born in a Gaza refugee camp) cleverly uses the device of set-piece auditions to show a range of amusing, sympathetic and eccentric characters; what he has described as œa human map of Palestine. Through this we get a wonderful microcosm of a defiant and proud people determined never to forget that one day they will resurface as an independent and whole nation. œWe'll all return and live together in Palestine, their driver tells Ahmad and his crew as they cross the border into Jordan.

Whilst Masharawi makes sure that politics are high on the film's agenda, Attente is above all a humorous look at his people's situation. As Ahmad talks to his friend about the job of getting actors for the state theatre, his friend bemoans: œHow could our state not have a national theatre? To which Ahmad replies: œHow could our national theatre not have a state!

In addition to the absurdity of their situation, humour also derives from the endless queue of acting hopefuls, who it seems turn up either for something to do or to deliver a message to loved ones back in the homeland. All want direction and inspiration for their audition. When Ahmad tells them to act out the process of waiting, they respond in a variety of hilarious ways, but mainly throw the idea back at him with a shrug of the shoulders as if to say: "waiting isn't acting, it's something I've been doing all my life".

Masharawi also uses the film to make comment on his own situation. Ahmad moans to Bissan that he moving away because nobody wanted his comedy and satire films, they were more interested in documentaries. One of the 'actors' at the audition asks Ahmad what kind of film he's making, saying œthere are so many films about Palestine liberation. He also introduces a certain sense of irony with his three main characters, who in their hard slog to try and reunite people through the new theatre end up arguing all the time amongst themselves.

The tone only becomes very serious when the crew are taken to a cemetery full of unmarked graves which is simply a yard below which bodies are buried, and when someone says to them: œthe actors you're auditioning will probably be dead by the time the theatre is finished.

"We Palestinians have the feeling of not being in control of our destiny, Masharawi has said, and the film is clearly an attempt to vocalise this, and the fact that every so often Palestinians get hope that maybe a solution has been found, it proves not to have been, so the waiting continues. "Waiting has become an integral part of our lives", Masharawi says. "It's at the root of our entire being." Using the crew and audition process as a vehicle to move around various parts of the Palestinian diaspora, Attente is a clever patchwork of vignettes sewn together with sharp dialogue and dry humour to produce a very entertaining and watchable film that never forgets the serious message it has been waiting to tell.