Fustuk

Gr 9 Up–Katah, 17, is the youngest of three. He and his siblings lost their father when ­Katah was only a baby, and now their mother is dying. Meanwhile, Katah is having dreams that feel like he is experiencing someone else’s reality—his late father’s. Filled with anxiety about his mother and extreme curiosity about his dreams, he decides to follow the visions in the hopes of finding a cure. What he ends up finding is magic in the form of a mischievous div named Az. He and his siblings desperately work to appease Az to save their mother, but tensions are high and lives are at stake. Will they be able to see past their differences to save what binds them together? Inspired by Armenian and Persian mythology, this is a beautiful look at family, a ­culture in danger of being lost to time, secrets threatening to tear people apart, and the way the past and the present sometimes overlap in our minds. Apelian’s limited color palette in each reality is stunning—a simple and effective way to let the audience see when events are taking place, while highlighting that sometimes people wear rose-colored glasses when it comes to family history. Katah and his ­family are Middle ­Eastern. ­