AJAMI New Lights

It is difficult to find metaphors that capture the complex essence of the greater Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or of Israel’s internal Jewish-Arab clash. The impasse seems existential in nature. This is why, of the many films about the decades-long turmoil, Scandor Copti’s and Yaron Shani’s AJAMI is so remarkable This muscular, intensely realistic depiction of urban battles on the streets of Ajami, a city marbled with cultural and religious divisions, echoes the larger regional tensions. The story follows o moment of bloodletting thot sends ripples through a rainbow of characters, and the film marks a notable development in Israeli cinema, with documentary and fiction meshing; co-directors Copti (a Palestinian) and Shani (an Israeli) cast from a pool of local amateurs. Their dizzying, timeshifting narrative creates a destabilizing atmosphere that’s both literary and somehow precisely apt for a world of sustained, macho-fueled chaos.