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Ajami


What seems to be an almost conventional film about mafia gang wars and bloody rituals begins patrimonial turns out to be over content of the five most complex episodes as a multifaceted portrait Israeli-Arab reality. Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani have designed with Ajami a vivid picture of everyday life in the same neighborhood of Jaffa, told through the interwoven family stories is. It is one of those areas that are reduced in TV news mostly on murder, robbery and drug trafficking. What are the motivations behind these events is put in Ajami by the internal view of various backgrounds - Christian and Muslim Israeli Arabs, Palestinian "illegals", Orthodox and secular Jews, Bedouins - showed that prove themselves to be extremely complex. To obtain, or their relatives on vital benefits to the characters often use illegal methods and thus deviate more or less randomly on the straight and narrow and thus not controlled for them Demimonde of drug dealers and clan feuds: for example, Omar, to be made of an Arab blood feud fre izukaufen and of working illegally in Israel Malek, who must finance the hospitalization of his mother . The boundaries between perpetrators and victims who live one house away, often in the next episode. Work in confined spaces so the various events directly to other communities.

how much the directors play with the expectations of the audience is reflected in the non-chronological narrative, the spatial action jumps and the creation of almost voyeuristic moments unexpectedly it comes to spontaneous melee and engraver land. The often hectic intersection, the changing camera angles and the light and color give "Ajami" a documentary character. is reinforced these almost naturalistic representation through the use of amateur actors, who, according to the story in a given environment, talk to each other Arabic or Hebrew. Aesthetically this is very reminiscent of the early films of Pasolini and the social-realist films of the Free Cinema.

What Ajami in addition to the narrative of everyday conflicts especially interesting, are the everyday touches off the political background of current news and stereotypes. Despite isolated for days implications (such as the policeman Dando, who is struggling with the disappearance of his brother, a soldier in the Israeli army), and conflicts arise from differences rather existienziellen needs or emotions of the characters. As obstacles prove to be less regular police checks and searches, but outdated traditions and quasi-feudal relations of domination and dependency. If, for example Omar Khadir and his lover, daughter must limit his imperious employer Abu Elias, in the neighboring city of Tel Aviv on clandestine meetings in order to be able to live out her private life away from patriarchal and religious requirements, you get the feeling that you are together with the protagonists in a completely different world , which is available only as a temporary refuge from the highly concentrated Ajamis climate is.

Ajami (ISR 2009), director / writer: Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani, Actors and Others: Fouad Habash, Eran Naim, Sahwani Youssef, Ibrahim Frege, Hilal Kabob, Ranin Karim