For adventurous moviegoers in the Western world, there can be an immediate curiosity for films set in countries we don't often get to see. Our hope is for beautiful landscape shots or telling cultural insights, something that gets us inside the exotic location -- a sort of unintended travelogue. Captain Abu Raed, the recent darling of Jordanian cinema, sates that curiosity, and does so with some engaging storytelling.

This warm study of an aging airport janitor was Jordan's official Best Foreign Film Oscar entry and took the World Cinema Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival (as well as a slew of other fest accolades). Director Amin Matalqa, who grew up in Jordan and the U.S., develops a gentle, inviting pace and impressively keeps his film there, allowing the story's gradual tension to practically sneak up on the audience.

Veteran Jordanian character actor Nadim Sawalha stars in the title role, a widowed man set in his daily routine: He scrubs floors and replaces garbage bags at an airport, and slowly ascends the steps to his empty apartment at the end of the day, where he drinks tea, reads, and retires for the evening, ignoring the yells of an angry-sounding drunk.

This lonely life of rote changes when Abu Raed arrives home one day wearing a discarded pilot's hat discovered in the trash at work. The poor neighborhood kids simply assume he flies planes, and hounds Abu Raed to answer questions about global locales they've only heard of. After repeated denials, the man finally gives in and begins spinning yarns -- not difficult considering his enormous and diverse book collection.

While this sounds like a sweet old Hallmark card -- and some storytelling scenes get unnecessarily flowery, swimming in slo-mo -- Matalqa reveals a deeper film about trust, social structure, gender, and community responsibility. One of the local kids who works extra hard to spill the beans about Abu Raed conceals larger issues that end up involving the old man, as well as his new friend Nour, a statuesque female pilot (Rana Sultan).

For all of Matalqa's consistency, and his even tempo is a real achievement for a first-timer, Captain Abu Raed teeters between drama and melodrama at times. An actor as experienced and likable as Sawalha helps keep everything grounded, however, with a reserved, wonderfully compassionate portrayal.

As for those peeks into Jordan, we get to luxuriate in an astounding view from Abu Raed's rooftop, where he drinks late-day tea while overlooking an entire city and beyond. On the big screen, it feels like you could step in and sip from the glass reserved for his wife.

Elsewhere in the film, women are treated as either subservient family members or wives-in-waiting. A recurring joke, and a well-executed one, deals with the polite stream of men who get summarily shot down by the beautiful, independent Nour. The guy who owns two pharmacies, the architect who's a social idiot -- they all provide some good laughs, and get us wanting only good things for strong women.

It's easy to get attached to Captain Abu Raed: It features a sweet, old man; poor, inquisitive kids; a caring, young woman; and unexpected acts of bravery. Sure, those are some easy buttons to push. But sometimes, pushing those buttons the right way can really work, especially in a unique setting such as this.