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‘Tallahassee’ Tackles Mental Health Stigma in Arab-American Communities

October 17, 2021
“The energy on set was indescribably magical — being surrounded by so many Arab women artists felt like a dream come true.”

When Mira gets into her sister’s car to attend their grandmother’s 90th birthday party in Brooklyn, she has no idea that no one in her family knows where she had been. In a moment of panic, her mother and sister had told everyone that she was in Tallahassee, Florida, to hide a painful truth: a spell in a psychiatric facility after an accidental overdose. Directed by Lebanese-American filmmaker Darine Hotait and written by Palestinian-American writer and clinical psychologist Hala Alyan – who also stars as Mira – the short film Talahassee makes its MENA premier this week at the Gouna Film Festival. The work provides viewers with a brief glimpse into the life of a Palestinian-American family and a young woman’s silent struggle in the face of stigma. Unable to tell the truth of her trauma and unwilling to weave lies about a city she had never even visited, Mira takes refuge in the company of the young son of a cousin; the only person at the party who neither knew nor cared where she had been. Tallahassee, which was filmed in New York City shortly before the first COVID-19…


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