A forty-something pastry shop owner in Lebanon, looking like an escapee from a film by Judd Apatow, is the unlikely protagonist of this marvelously crafted deadpan comedy. Business is so bad he is constantly giving away the pastries, although he seems to be the only one who wants to eat them. One day, his crabby mother, with whom he still lives, packs up and leaves without explanation. Left on his own, he searches cluelessly for maternal substitutes, meanwhile reluctantly befriending the ten-year-old rascal next door obsessed with toy guns. A friend cajoles him into hiring an Ethiopian maid to keep house for him. But lacking a common language with the woman, she ends up absurdly hanging around in a sullen mood doing nothing. Filmmakers Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia paint a picture of the overgrown small town of Tripoli with an understated, documentary-like brush, revealing a town bereft of culture and filled with peevish, dissatisfied characters, where friendly prostitutes troll for customers using text messaging. The directors' astute attention to detail induces laughter of recognition and sympathy for these endearingly dysfunctional residents, unaware of their starring role in the human comedy.