Oct 28, 2016

The rift between the Jewish and Arab communities in Israel has deepened recently, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning his constituents on the last day of the elections in March 2015 that Arabs were "voting in droves," thus making more than a million Arabs feel like second-class citizens. But despite this deepening rift, three films have taken the Israeli film world by storm, providing a fascinating glimpse into Arab society in the Jewish state.

The first film to win big was “Sand Storm” by Elite Zexer that won six Ophir Awards (Israel’s equivalent to the Oscars), including one for best film. Then came “Personal Affairs” by director Maha Haj that took the top prize at the 2016 Haifa Film Festival, followed by "In Between" from director Maysaloun Hamoud, which has also received various prizes, including best debut feature film at the Haifa Film Festival. These three films deal with the cultural, social, religious and traditional world of the Arab community in Israel, as well as with the identity crisis and intergenerational changes it is undergoing. This wave of Arab cinema is particularly fascinating given the fact that its creators are women — directors and actresses — and their scripts deal with the lives of Arab women in Israel’s Arab and Jewish communities. In many respects, the wave of films by Arab creators shatters stereotypes not only through the narratives it tells but also through its Arab directors and actresses who hail from traditional homes and a traditional society, displaying courage in making liberated, free-spirited, promiscuous films.

One of Israel’s top film critics, Gidi Orsher, told Al-Monitor that these films are a reaction to changes sweeping Arab society, whose residents are experiencing an identity crisis due to being a minority among a Jewish majority. Yet, he said that these films are also a reaction to Palestinian male cinema that has dealt in the past mostly with the Israeli occupation.

“The statement of the Arab female filmmakers now is to say, 'Yes, we have a position of our own on politico-diplomatic issues, but let’s see what’s happening to us as human beings too,'” Orsher said. He predicts that these films will have an impact on Israeli cinema in the future. “It can’t stop now, it will keep going. It’s reminiscent of the development of the Israeli film scene in its early days,” he added. “Until the 1960s, Israeli films were national, Zionist, but in the 1970s people started talking about the individual in society.”

Hamoud’s film “In Between” tells the story of three Arab women living in Tel Aviv. On the one hand, traditional Arab society supervises their comings and goings, and on the other, the liberated and permissive society of Tel Aviv regards them as second-class citizens. The main characters are played by three Palestinian actresses — Mouna Hawa, Sana Jammelieh and Shaden Kanboura. In explaining their decision to award the film a prize at the Haifa Film Festival, the jury described it as “a powerful creation about women fighting to shape their fate by coping with challenges, through friendship, courage, victory, and by breaking free of shackles, and the price they pay.”