Documentary feature What Walaa Wants from director Christy Garland (NSI Drama Prize) is one of five curated films screening nationally as part of the Academy’s Canadian Screen Arts Festival.

What Walaa Wants is an NFB co-production about a spirited girl from the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank who is determined to become one of the few policewomen in the Palestinian Security Forces. Beginning soon after her mother’s return from eight years in an Israeli prison, the documentary follows Walaa from the ages of 15 to 21 in an engrossing tale of a defiant young woman determined to reach her goals.

The Canadian Screen Arts Festival is a curated screening series offering the best in contemporary filmmaking. Other films included in the series are Dans la brume, Immaculate Memories: The Uncluttered Worlds of Christopher Pratt, Sashinka and Stockholm. Films screen at various venues nationally throughout March.