Doesn’t the title Gaza Mon Amour—last year’s entry from Palestine for the best international film Oscar—suggest political intrigue, stirring emotions, or at least a hot love affair in a luxurious hotel room? Sorry, folks. A better title might be Gaza My Sewing Machine. This gentle, lived-in story about a tentative romance between an older man and woman in a shabby corner of the Occupied Territories sits comfy and baggy like a pair of old trousers worn for a few days, and I only mention them because a pair of pants affords a few moments of light humor. 

Gaza begins slowly by immersing us in its hero’s routine. Issa Nasser (Salim Daw) goes out most nights in a boat to pull in nets full of what look like scrawny fish from the nearby sea. A bachelor in late middle age, he leads a modest life, cooking meager meals, tuning out his meddling sister’s plans to marry him off, and holing up in one of the film’s many shabby interiors. However, when a local seamstress and widow named Siham (Succession’s Hiam Abbass) catches his eye, Issa sets about arranging pretexts to meet her—not easy in a society with many rules governing interaction between men and women (the seamstress hesitates to sew a pair of men’s pants) and where busybodies watch others sharply for any sign of misbehavior. Siham’s restless, divorced young daughter makes Siham a particular target of the local gossips.

As Issa tries to overcome his shyness, directors Arab and Tarzan Nasser give the plot a sudden jolt when his boat’s net dredges up an ancient Greek statue. Now the corrupt police are after Issa for stealing antiques, while his sister, alarmed at his interest in the scandal-tarred widow, is lining up brides for him to marry. The shaggy fisherman is going to have to use wiles and courage to dodge these forces and win his lady love. The pace picks up here, if only a little, and the directors have fun using the looming statue as a quiet foil. A hunt for a missing piece of the artwork provides a smidgen of silly, slightly bawdy comic relief alongside Issa’s halting courtship. 

With no explicit political agenda, the film manages to paint a revealing picture of Palestinian life and culture. Warlike threats blare from the TV and the occasional bomb goes off—no one pays much attention. Older folk seem resigned to their lot, but the young yearn to decamp for Europe, while imprisonment and financial shortfalls are faced with stoic dignity.

The movie sends the message that even amid tough conditions, it’s worth it to take a chance on love. Gaza Mon Amour starts a little stodgy, but wins you over with low-key, unhurried charm.