the story

Pinball is a feature documentary about Yosef–a typical American college kid, who is coming of age twenty years after the U.S. invaded his home country of Iraq and displaced his family. Yosef was four years old when they fled Baghdad. Of all places, they received asylum in Louisville. Pinball follows Yosef as he straddles two cultures and struggles to become something greater than what his situation allows. 

Yosef finds every excuse to miss class, works a restaurant job to help his family out, and lives for his social life. His dad Mohammed wants him to help fix and sell used cars. But Yosef dreams of playing pro soccer. He Facetimes with his grandma in Baghdad and sees unfamiliar streets he’s told he grew up playing in. The shock of not remembering Iraq or his family there sparks a drive in Yosef to invest more fully in his future in Louisville. 

But when he tries to open a bank account, he learns he isn’t a U.S. citizen. It’s clear that becoming an adult in this country is not going to be easy. There is a sense of triumph in the effort that ensues, of Yosef doing whatever it takes to carve a life for himself. At the end of the film, he’s not exactly where he wants to be, but he’s closer than he ever was to knowing what’s right for himself. Pinball bears witness to Yosef’s growth spurt from 19 to 21; the beginning stages of understanding adulthood and the vulnerability of family structures and friendships.