Directed by Muayad Alayan
Palestine | 2018 | Fiction | 127 min | Arabic, Hebrew, English w/ English subtitles
Film Source: Dada Films
Awards/premier festivals: International Film Festival Rotterdam - Special Jury Award; Seattle International Film Festival - Grand Jury Prize; and many others
Sponsors: Burlington Bethlehem-Arad Sister City Program
In many countries, an affair between a married woman and a married man would be just that: an affair. When the woman is Jewish Israeli and the man is Muslim Palestinian, it cannot be that simple. When Sarah and Saleem are spotted in the wrong place at the wrong time, the affair naturally takes on a political dimension, leaving them to deal with more than just broken marriages. Director Muayad Alayan picks up on the nuanced engagement with Palestinian-Israeli tensions of his first feature, Love, Theft, and Other Entanglements, and gradually unravels them through the vehicle of a psychosocial drama-thriller with many surprises along the way. The non-linear structure emphasizes the complexity of the narrative as it impacts both their families in personal and political ways. A richly detailed Jerusalem and neighboring Bethlehem serve as both background and center players. ~OY