Ajami

I noticed that one reviewer said that this film was for all tastes. Well, I cannot see that at all. The film is pretty depressing and violent--and I'd never recommend it to anyone who is depressed or who doesn't want to see a film like this. It's gritty, tough and not something for all tastes. However, it was recognized by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (i.e, the Oscar folks) and was nominated for Best Foreign Language movie.

This film is very unusual because it is seen from several different viewpoints. I never would have imagined an Israeli film where the main characters are divided up into chapters and each one stars such different people--such as Palestinian Muslims, Palestinian Christians as well as Jews. This is the best thing about the film--it humanizes everyone and shows motivation of everyone. None of them are evil, exactly---just people for good or for bad.

As far as the story goes, here's where it gets depressing. Different folks NEED money and need it fast--such as the young man who must gather an astronomical sum to keep a violent gang from wiping out his family and another who needs to pay for his mother's life-saving surgery. What these folks do to try to get the money as well as the sad story of the dead Jewish young man all make for a compelling but incredibly depressing story. Death abounds and life is cheap in this film.

Overall, it IS well made and the acting is quite nice. But I just found myself feeling awful by the time is was finished. Maybe you'll get more out of it than me...I dunno.

Ajami is the first full length feature film directed by two young Israelis Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani.

They have produced an extraordinary film which features five separate stories set in Ajami, a poor Arab neighborhood situated in the city of Tel-Aviv/Yafo. The many characters are played mostly by non professionals, i.e. are not working actors, and the result gives a documentary feel to the film. Amazingly the level of acting is very high and ensures that the film is completely believable and absorbing from beginning to end. Perhaps the only drawback is the limited time available to develop each main character. The viewer wants to know more about them and their lives but time is limited.

The film shows a part of Israeli society rarely shown in Israeli films (Arab Moslem and Arab Christian families living in Ajami) and the makers are to be commended for their achievement in showing a rather hidden side of our society.

There is the sensitive kid thrust into a situation that requires more maturity and smarts than normal for his age, there is the couple whose love incurs disapproval because it crosses ethnic lines, there is the authority figure who protects you today but may turn against you tomorrow... the problem is, this movie has two of each of those. The cast of characters is huge and hard to keep track of, the plot is artificially discontinuous, and in short if you want to get the movie straight, you'd better be ready to see it twice. Which you may want to, because the acting is convincing and although the characters are used from time to time to make a clear and didactic sociopolitical point, they win considerable sympathy from the viewer-- without, for the most part, being oversentimentalized.

I just saw this at the London Film Festival. Oh, what a treat.

Taking on the fashionable use of related threads and retelling the same narrative from a different angle, this film delivers a bullet tough view of street life and crime around Jaffa.

The audience is sucked into the maelstrom so quickly, that we forget the media view of the great enmity and realise that there are, of course, many smaller ones. While much eventually revolves around Israeli governance, this is not a blame game but a Shakespearean tragedy.

Unlike City of God, the casual viewer is not always given heavy clues about a characters background - and which side of the racial / religious divide they are on. And subtle differences can end up being of major (often fatal) importance. Beware.

This is not a film destined for multiplexes. Its a man's world where women are a distraction. There is no victory for political correctness. But more to the point, we are not given any particular reason to believe that Things Will Get Better.

Astonishing that this is a debut feature from two young directors. The film, named for the Jaffa neighborhood where most of it takes place, chronicles the story of several neighborhood residents who tread through life amid rampant crime, strict Arab family structures and rules, clan law, revenge killings, harsh police and racism, and the growing Jewish presence in the neighborhood. It could have easily fallen onto the abundant clichés which generally characterize films that delve on this subject matter - but instead, there are no fingers pointed, no blame set and no far-fetched allegories. The focal point is always on individual human beings, and the injustices and tragedies that constrict their paths.