Even by the high standards set by Israeli films in the last few years, “Ajami” is a knockout. A crackling urban drama shot with unblinking realism and steeped in astringent Middle East irony, “Ajami” sinks its hooks in the first minute and never lets up.
No wonder it was nominated Feb. 2 for an Academy Award for best foreign language film.
Written, directed and edited by Scandar Copti, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and Yaron Shani, a Tel Aviv Jew, “Ajami” takes its name — and its intersecting plotlines — from the Jaffa neighborhood where Jews and Arabs live in uneasy proximity. Melting pot? Try boiling pot.
The story unfolds from a succession of characters’ perspectives, augmented at times with flashbacks, that grant us entrée to a number of worlds. The kinetic effect of this 21st-century neorealism, achieved via nonprofessional actors and handheld cameras, is to experience this seething city at the speed of life.
“Ajami” — which last year won five top Israeli awards, including best film, best director and best screenplay — began its U.S. theatrical run Feb. 3 in New York. It has its Northern California premiere Thursday, Feb. 25, in the East Bay International Jewish Film Festival. It will also be shown March 3 in San Jose as part of the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival.
The film begins with a bang, with a child gunned down on the street by a Bedouin duo on a motorcycle. This gutless act was supposed to be a revenge killing, but it turns out to be a case of mistaken identity.
The intended target, Omar (Shahir Kabaha), is now in the middle of an Arab-vs.-Arab dispute. He appeals to a well-off, well-connected, Christian Arab restaurant owner, Abu Elias (Youssef Sahwani), who arranges a cease-fire with the aggrieved Bedouin gang and a meeting to arrange a settlement. However, the price is more than Omar can pay, leaving him susceptible to illegal and dangerous schemes to raise the cash.
One of the workers in Abu Elias’ kitchen is a Palestinian, Malek (Ibrahim Frege), who’s even younger and more naïve than Omar. He also has money worries, for his mother urgently needs major surgery.
The first hour of “Ajami” is devoted to the fraught circumstances of these Arab youths, and their motivations and machinations are designed not just to keep the drama percolating but to illuminate the hierarchy within the Arab community. Malek, who is in Israel illegally and has no rights, is at the bottom of the pecking order — illustrative of the callous way in which the wider Arab world views the Palestinians.
In due time, “Ajami” introduces Jewish characters in one of its five interconnected stories. Their paths eventually will collide with the Arabs we’ve already met.
The writer-directors accomplish this far more organically and believably than films like “Traffic” and “Babel” handled their interrelated character arcs — partly because none of the actors are familiar (let alone famous), but mostly because the story feels as if it’s springing from the streets before our eyes.
The overriding sensation of the film is imminent and omnipresent violence, though assuredly not in the quasi-entertaining, nerve-wracking manner of a Tarantino flick, where a scene might gratuitously skip from conversation to fusillade at any moment. Every shooting and stabbing in “Ajami” is the surface manifestation of the perpetually stressed characters’ churning suspicion and frustration.
Speaking of suspicion, the filmmakers employ misdirection with great skill to encourage audiences to have incorrect first impressions and arrive at wrong conclusions — that is, to experience what it’s like to be Arab or Jewish in a mistrustful world.
To be clear, “Ajami” isn’t interested in violence — certainly not the romantic fatalism or macho glamour that most movies offer — but its crushing consequences, and the ripples of mania and revenge that ensue. The source of the tension, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, is rarely alluded to for the simple reason that Israeli and Palestinian moviegoers know the backdrop.
Frankly, it would be easier (though less compelling) to watch “Ajami” if it were set somewhere other than Israel. For this remarkably constructed story is also a catalog of the residue of bitterness and grief on both sides, along with the thwarted potential and wasted resources.
“Ajami” screens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25 at CineArts in Pleasant Hill, and 7:30 p.m. March 3 at the Retro Dome in San Jose.