Sunday 4th June 2017, Movie night: Ajami (Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani, 2009). 120 minutes, Language: Arabic and Hebrew. English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

The film contains five story lines, each of which is presented in a non-chronological fashion. Some events are shown multiple times from varying perspectives. A young Israeli Arab boy, Nasri, who lives in the Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa, narrates the film.

The film borrows from the techniques of Gomorrah and the Mexican new wave as typified by, say, Amores Perros, in weaving characters and storylines to create a tapestry of lives. The drama is kickstarted by a drive-by shooting that kills an innocent boy, mistaken for one of the main characters. It’s the result of a vendetta between two crime clans and revenge for the shooting of a Bedouin weeks earlier.

Using non-professional actors, Ajami’s strands give an unusually nuanced insight to life in Israel, its confusion of identities and passions. Intelligently, the directors offer no glib solutions or sermons and allow the considerable energy of its images to sweep viewers along. Age-old prejudices and hatreds surface every now and then, but the main aim is the politics of day-to-day survival.

Movie trailer: https://vimeo.com/15503260

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net