The U.S. invasion of Iraq killed an untold number of people, possibly hundreds of thousands, and drove nine million Iraqis out of their country, dispersed to the four corners of the Earth.
Among those who fled were Mohammed Al Windawi, his wife and two small children – Yosef, then aged four, and his younger sister Azraa. They made it to Jordan first, then settled in Egypt, then uprooted again for life in America as refugees – in Louisville, KY.
Yosef’s coming of age story – as a young man pulled between cultures and countries – is told in the documentary Pinball, which made its world premiere Friday night at the True/False festival in Columbia, MO. Watch a clip from the film below. At a Q&A following the premiere, Yosef described the film as “exploring my past and the search of who I am.”
Yosef on the soccer pitch.
ITVS/Grey Is Good
The documentary shows his friendships with other young men in Louisville of a similar background. There’s a somewhat contentious but loving bond with his father but Yosef and his sister both feel the pull of a faraway place.
“Naturally my body doesn’t feel at home here. Naturally,” Yosef says in the film regarding Louisville. “Physically, I feel it. I feel healthier in other parts of the world. That’s no coincidence. I know what my body needs and I want to feed it that.”
Director Naveen Chaubal (right) and producer Bryn Silverman
Grey Is Good
The film is directed by Naveen Chaubal, who grew in neighboring Indiana as the son of Indian immigrants. At the Q&A, Chaubal explained his relationship with Yosef and his family grew out of a short film he made about a decade earlier.
“Through that process, we met Yosef and Azraa and their family. And that was when I started to see so many familiar dynamics and scenes play out going over to their house,” he said. “The familiarity of the conversations between a father and son or a father and a daughter or a son and a mother, it felt so familiar and familial that it was just like, ‘Oh, there’s something here that needs to be shared.’ And here we [were] in Kentucky, in Louisville, and we often don’t see that as a backdrop. We often don’t see Indiana as a backdrop. So, it just felt like there was something urgent in that respect to tell that story.”
Yosef and Azraa in ‘Pinball’
ITVS/Grey Is Good
In the film, Yosef and Azraa make plans to go to Egypt, a place they sense they could feel more free (perhaps unencumbered by the scrutiny that comes with being an Arab immigrant to the U.S.). Eventually, both make it to Cairo – Azraa first, followed by her brother, their time there documented by Chaubal. There are moments of humor in Pinball as the siblings razz each other.
“We have a lot of sibling bickering, but I really do think that that trip made our bond a lot stronger, like inseparable. We are very close,” Azraa commented. “That trip and working so closely with [producer] Bryn [Silverman] and Naveen as well, it really helped our relationship.”
Yosef Al Windawi and Azraa Al Windawi
Grey Is Good
Pinball features an evocative, nontraditional score by composer Will Epstein, who also participated in the Q&A.
“I worked on the short film [with Chaubal] and it was one of the first films I scored,” Epstein noted. “I made like probably four times as much music as is in this movie and we sort of whittled it down into this kind of very cohesive-feeling world. And so, it’s been a really special process.”
In a director’s statement, Chaubal writes, “At its heart, Pinball is about becoming: becoming a man; becoming a brother; and becoming someone capable of holding both grief and possibility in the same body. Yosef’s relationship with his sister, Azraa, hums with the familiar chords of siblinghood — antagonism and refuge intertwined. His relationship with his father, at once tumultuous and tender, traces the quiet and often unspoken labor of forgiveness. I hope audiences find themselves somewhere inside these relationships, recognizing in Yosef’s journey the shape of their own crossings into adulthood.
“When we began this film, the world felt different. The story we were telling — of displacement, resilience, and belonging — seemed like one this country preferred not to see. Now it feels impossibly urgent. The reverberations of U.S. involvement in the Middle East are not abstract geopolitical echoes; they live in living rooms, in school hallways, in the private negotiations of families rebuilding themselves in unfamiliar landscapes. The long aftermath of war is carried in the nervous systems of young people asked to grow up too soon, to translate for their parents, to carry histories they did not choose.”
Chaubal continues, “And yet, Pinball is not a thesis on oppression. It does not seek to indict through spectacle. Instead, it offers Yosef a space — and perhaps a tool — for expression. The film resists framing him as an emblem or argument. He is not a symbol of policy. He is a young person discovering his body, testing his edges, negotiating interpersonal relationships and his autonomy.”
Pinball is directed by Naveen Chaubal, who also served as cinematographer and editor. Bryn Silverman produced the film and contributed additional editing and cinematography. Consulting producers are Darcy McKinnon, Faisal Azam, and Jannet Nuñez. Protagonist Yosef Al Windawi also serves as associate producer. Pinball is executive produced by Carrie Lozano.
Watch a brief clip of Pinball here, featuring Yosef and his father, Mohammed. It begins with music from Epstein’s score.
