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Jul 12, 2013
Interesting plot supports an even more interesting glimpse at of life in a Palestinian quarter of Israel, their tribal norms of justice, the way they adore and admire their women, like anyone else, yet treat them like cattle all the same, as few others do. Though they inhabit such a different realm, they still eat and sleep and bleed like the rest of us. The cinema verite is done well. The reduction of characters to types comes dangerously close to the way Leon Uris does it, though not quite. Thus, Palestinians are tempted by need to illicit behaviour, while the Jewish Israelis maintain, through their policing, any traces of the land's rule of law and order. And yet the movie shows up the two peoples' indistinguishability, primarily because religion plays a crucial role in everyone's life. Struggles between belonging and pulling away culturally come into play, and there's a lot more going on as well: Jewish parents in anguish as their son, a soldier, is being held prisoner; cocaine changing hands and taking lives - and perhaps a bit too much plotting at the cost of a firmer engagement with the characters. Recommended.