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Simply Perfect

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The realism. The complexity of the plot and in spite of the complexity, the movie had good integrity. Amazing acting. Sat through rooted to my seat as if I was watching a thriller and I can't even remember which thriller. The love. Most of the characters are very mature and portray largeness of heart. Inspite, there are certain differences that you just can't break. These get built into the psyche purely based on your circumstance. The racial hostility between a jew and an arab makes sense to a jew and an arab but not to an Indian. The actors. There were so many actors who have done excellent excellent work. The Arab, the nonchalance with which he performs, he almost looks like he strayed into the camera field without knowing. The way he comes out of jail and his expression changes as he sees his brothers. None of the theatrics, just a smile. The father has done a great job. The mother. The sister. The brother - every one. To me, there is no actor in the movie except may be the Arab's mother and sister. The direction is excellent too. I think most of the movie is shot in low lighting. The setting is also very dry. The movie felt so real, It could pass off as a documentary.However, there were challenging shots for actors to perform too. It was great story telling - uncomplicated technique. The viewer is given full time to appreciate the situation. It is not like those Hollywood movies where one wacky dialogue you miss , you miss the plot and then you go back and admire - oh what a tricky way to convey. Nonsense. This one was direct. Dil Se. You can feel the warmth of the relationships in spite of the fact that no elaborate situation has been built artificially to convey this

I was fond of Keren Yedaya's first feature, Or, so I was looking forward to her second. I found it a bit underwhelming. Dana Igvy returns as the lead, but here her performance is less impressive. I think what I missed most was the naturalistic tone, this felt more contrived and artificial. Perhaps this would have been less problematic if the film had some kind of style to it, but it's rather flat. Despite this, it's not a bad movie... the characterizations are reasonably compelling and so forth. It just didn't really grab me, and I don't think it adds all that much to the Israel-Palestine discussion. Still, I'm interested in what else Yedaya has to offer.

Israel is receiving a storm of criticism these days for its merciless treatment of Palestinians under occupation. Often overlooked are the Palestinians who live on the Israeli side of the apartheid wall, the Arab-Israelis of Palestinian descent. Amidst this storm of criticism arrives the movie Jaffa. What Jaffa does for both Jews and Arabs in Israel is portray them as human. Palestinians are not cast as terrorists or as suppressed peasants. Jews are not cast as brainy but thrifty business moguls.Instead the moviegoer gets to look into the lives of these two groups of people and judge for themselves. Jaffa does not, however, show the true nasty side of Israel; it ignores the fact that tens of miles away, Palestinians are being completely deprived of their basic human rights, squeezed together behind a cruel apartheid wall by Israel.Is Israel even ready for a movie like Jaffa? I will argue that yes, it is time for Israelis to accept Palestinians, as people deserving of equal rights in a society that has so long denied them that. Thank you, Keron Yedaya, for what the world hopes is just the first of many Israeli made movies to come that give fair treatment to Arab-Israelis of Palestinian descent.

Jaffa, an Israeli film whose title refers to a part of Tel Aviv, is an excellent and moving drama. I wish movies like this got more press and had more fame. The story is sad, realistic and compelling.The movie begins in the family owned garage of an Israeli family, where father, son Meir, and daughter Mali, work alongside a young Palestinian named Toufik. Meir is not the model son- rebellious, angry, ungrateful and disrespectful towards his parents and everybody else, he steals the attention from his quiet younger sister. No one suspects that she is having a love affair with Toufik and that they are secretly planning on getting married.Religious and other tensions start building between the two young men, Meir and Toufik, and the outcome is shocking and devastating. Mali makes an extremely difficult sacrifice, depriving herself of a normal life by keeping hidden a truth which only she knows.All of the actors are magnificent. The father is particularly memorable, always kind, trying at times to be a little bit stern, understanding of everyone throughout the film until his final, harsh condemnation. The ending is extremely powerful- completely unexpected and expected at the same time. Mali finally makes a choice for herself and we are left hoping that her life will be a happy one.This film brought me to tears on several occasions. I watched it without Fabio as I wasn't sure what to expect and now highly recommend it to him and all of my readers.My rating: 9/10 Please visit http://paulinasmovies.blogspot.com and become a follower to read more reviews!