Ward Kamel | If I Die in America / 2024

the body thieves

by Douglas Messerli

 

Ward Kamel (screenwriter and director) If I Die in America / 2024 [15 minutes]

 

Syrian-born Ward Kamel’s 2024 short film If I Die in America once again recounts something that happens far too often in gay life.

    Both Manny (Gil Perez-Abraham) and his husband Sameer (George Shakkour) have evidently been in an automobile accident that has injured Manny and killed Sameer.

     Hardly as Manny recovered and attempted to visit the funeral home where is husband’s dead body lies that he is presented with papers by a cousin serving a lawyer for the family asking him to sign permission for them to ship the body back to Kuwait for a proper and immediately Muslim burial.

    Outraged that Sameer’s mother has not even bothered to talk to him about their request and for the fact that they do not even want to allow him time to assimilate the family request, he refuses.

     A short while later Dalal (Han Chamoun) tries again, this time visiting Manny at his home where a birthday cake for Sameer still sits on the table. Dalal is accompanied by another relative Khalil (Moud Sabra).

     Dalal apologizes, having presumed that the mother had spoken to him and for her having confronted Manny without warning. But she still reminds him that it is the Muslim custom to immediately bury the dead, and begs him to consent for the body to be returned to the family. She also argues that his flight will also be paid so that he might attend the ceremony.

     But again, Manny is not at all ready to make such a sudden decision, having not even had the time to assimilate his lover’s death. Khalil enters into the negotiations by claiming that Manny has no real say in the matter since he was not really married, their marriage having been only a green-card arrangement: “Are you a woman? Did you have a wedding? A real wedding, not just one with your friends. You didn’t because this was not a marriage. This was an arrangement. That’s all this was.”

   Manny lunges at him and tells them to get out. The homophobic statement, denying even the love they shared outrages Manny and he throws both of them out of the house, hurrying back by chauffeured car to the funeral home.

     Throughout he has attempted to call Sameer’s mother, but he receives only a recording; and he is told by Dalal that it is problematic to the mother to even have to acknowledge his existence. Furious by her refusal to answer his phone call, he throws his cellphone out the window. But soon after, he demands the driver stop and he attempts to find the phone in the field, finally speaking to the mother who attempts to explain that he is being selfish, that Sameer also had deep commitments with the family.

       In the last few moments of the film, it is clear that Manny has come to terms with the issue as we see him packing, dressed in black, obviously prepared for the voyage to Kuwait. He has come to realize that the burial will not alter the fact of their real love and time together.

      So often throughout gay history, lovers have been denied the right to even mourn their companions or, as the film A Single Man (2009) reminds us, robs the lover the possibility to even attend to funeral ceremony. In many cases before gay marriage was allowed, the houses of gay men, their possessions, and any remaining traces of their relationship were claimed by the families, particularly if their dead partners had made no will or other legal documents.

     Despite the truly homophobic situation, Manny finally comes to terms with the family claims because he is at least invited to the ceremony and he has the documents to prove his marriage and the significance of their lives together. More importantly, he has the memory of their love, as stronger force than any anger the family has had for their son’s sexuality.

     Yet this short film only reiterates just how tentative all gay relationships remain in a world of homophobic hatred.

 

Los Angeles, January 30, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (January 2026).