Captain Abu Raed, playing at Sundance next week, is the product both of one man's drive to become a filmmaker, and of the people in a part of the world whose stories ache to be told. Just shy of his 32nd birthday, Amin Matalqa has already left one financially rewarding career and is now on the cusp of a whole new kind of success.

"I studied Business Marketing at Ohio State University, but my video camera never left my shoulder." After four years in telecommunications, Amin decided to change course and moved to Los Angeles where he made short films, wrote screenplays and, after three years, was accepted into the Directing MFA program at the American Film Institute. "All of that was just preparation for what I really wanted to do: make features."

Amin Matalqa's first film is set in Jordan and tells the story of Abu Raed, a janitor at the airport in Amman. The children in his neighborhood believe he is a pilot. Abu Raed humors them with made-up stories of his travels but is soon drawn into the painful realities of these youngsters' lives.

"The kids who played these roles were not trained actors, and ten of the twelve are from orphan centers (they have mothers but no fathers) in refugee camps," explained Amin. "We auditioned over 200 children for these roles and found truly gifted performers. They are the story-behind-the-story in this film."

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