Writer-director Minhal Baig brings this very specific narrative to life with tenderness and care in “Hala.” The film opens with a Muslim prayer, and within seconds the camera is focused on Hal ...

A straightforward film about people we rarely get movies about, “Hala” is writer-director Minhal Baig’s sincerely dramatized evocation of a Muslim teenager’s evolving relationship with her ...

By Fahima Haque “If I had seen something like this when I was growing up, I would have felt less alone,” the director Minhal Baig said of her film “Hala.” Baig’s coming-of-age story ...

Editor’s Note: My Hero is a series profiling remarkable people around the world who have touched the lives of anchors and correspondents at CNN. Hala Gorani remembers Aleppo before civil war ...