“Ajami,” co-directed and written by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani (a Palestinian and an Israeli), has received acclaim from just about every critic plus an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film, but what about your average viewer? These filmmakers subject their basic story to confusing time shifts, peculiar changes in perspective, and nonessential subplots in an attempt to portray the experiences of Muslims, Jews, and Christians in contemporary Israel. And while this sounds like a good idea, the result is a bewildering mess of a movie. As an example, at one point, the directors show us different pieces of the climactic event from the points of view of several characters, which does generate some tension (what really happened?), but it also needlessly complicates the story. And there are so many characters that few are adequately developed and that’s assuming you can remember who they are.
The basic story involves two Muslim teens, Omar and Malek, living in an Arab neighborhood in Jaffa, Israel. Because they are desperate for money, when they find what they believe to be a valuable package of drugs, they arrange an ill-fated sale. To this, the directors add a Jewish cop searching for his missing brother (who may have been killed by Arabs), a Palestinian planning to start a new life with a Jewish woman, someone’s brother who kills a Jewish man, the fact that Malek is an illegal immigrant and Omar’s doomed romance with a Christian girl. “Ajami” has to be viewed at least twice to understand what’s happening. Then, maybe, you can appreciate what the directors are trying to do. Subtitles 2/26/10
1 comment:
I thought that 2 smiles was far to generous for this awful movie. It is one of the worst I've seen so far this year!
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