Dancing Arabs is a heartfelt coming of age tale of a young Arab man in Jerusalem
POINTS 8
“Living in the Middle East is a question of identity. All of us who live here have a long history on our backs, struggles for land, spiritual and religious boundaries, fears, terror, moments of grace, hope and hatred that have divided people and nations,” says Israeli director Eran Riklis (Lemon Tree, The Syrian Bride, Zaytoun) about the timely queries posed in his new film Dancing Arabs (also known as A Borrowed Identity), based on Sayed Kashua’s novel.
More to the point, Riklis adds: “It doesn’t matter whether you live in Tel Aviv, Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, or Tira — the city where our protagonist is born — you still have to face who you are, what you believe in and where you want to be in the future. These are hard-to-answer questions and it’s even harder to live with them.”
Those words perfectly describe the many dilemmas a bright, young Palestinian-Israeli man named Eyad (Tawfeek Barhom) has to face when he’s sent by his father, Salah (Ali Suliman) to a prominent boarding school in Jerusalem, where a new world with both joy and adversity awaits him. As a young man, Salah himself attended university in Jerusalem, but his political activism for the Arab cause triggered his imprisonment. Now, many years later, Salah is yet another Arab fruit-picker in Tira.
So it makes sense he wants his son to have a better future that will allow him to live with dignity and also broaden his horizons. Being an Arab in Israel is certainly no easy task. In fact, upon arrival to his new school, Eyad is confronted with cultural and social issues that trouble his everyday existence. He’s also bullied and feels insulted by the anti-Arab ideology in the curriculum.
Kashua has said many times that his novel is largely autobiographical — he’s an Arab accepted by the Israeli Jewish society even though he still acknowledges he’s part of the Arab community, which is mostly anti-Israel — here in the movie, the Arabs happily dance on their rooftops when the scud missiles hit Israel. Though much of the hatred Arabs feel for Jews is clearly depicted, so is the hostility and prejudice of Jews towards Arabs.
On the plus side, he meets Jonathan (Michael Moshonov), a young man with multiple sclerosis whom he soon befriends. And there’s also an Israeli girl, Naomi (Danielle Kitsis), who has no prejudices and doesn’t feel an inch of hate toward him. On the contrary: she is smart, loving, and soon falls for Eyad. As he does for her. The thing is whether their love can blossom considering the unwelcoming environment filled with so many conflicts and differences.
Dancing Arabs exposes the colours and nuances of the scenario, aims for subtlety and sometimes achieves it, depicts the characters as real human beings, and doesn’t fall into commonplace or agitprop. In general, the performances are more than decent, all the more so that of Barhom. For the most part, it’s well directed, it keeps an engaging pace and it delivers what you’d expect from it.
But not entirely: the supporting characters could have used more personal traits, more flesh and bone. As is, even when they fulfil their purpose according to the script, they still come across as half-empty acting figures. However, the biggest problem Dancing Arabs has is that it doesn’t convey the tumultuous everyday life, the harsh realism the theme calls for, the disturbingly opposite views about the same matter. Even the love story between Eyad and Naomi is somewhat sugar-coated.
In real life, things are far more problematic and unsettling. What you have in Dancing Arabs is more of a didactic and illustrative take on individual facets that speak of a larger picture that’s not always addressed with the gritty realism it calls for.
In formal terms, there are some moments with an accomplished emotional atmosphere — such as when Eyad is in his car after being dumped by Naomi — some verbal exchanges are smart enough to maintain your interest, and the smooth editing does much to keep the story moving forward effortlessly. Plus an unexpected surprise towards the ending makes an important difference in the story.
Production notes
Dancing Arabs (Israel, Germany, France, 2014) Directed by Eran Riklis. Screenplay by Saved Kashua, based on his own novel. With: Tawfeek Barhom, Razi Gabareen, Ali Suliman, Danielle Kitsis, Yaël Abecassis. Cinematography: Michael Wiesweg. Editing: Richard Marizy. Running time: 104 minutes.
@pablsuarez
