Ajami (2009)
Directed by Scandar Copti
Ajami is an area of Tel Aviv in Israel where Arabs, Palestinians, Jews and Christians live together in a tense atmosphere. Omar, an Israeli Arab, struggles to save his family from a gang of extortionists. He also courts a beautiful Christian girl: Hadir. Malek, an illegal Palestinian worker, tries to collect enough money to pay for his mother's operation. Dando, an Israeli cop, does his utmost to find his missing brother who may have been killed by Palestinians.
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3 films that influenced Ajami
What critics say influenced Ajami
Consider, for example, that classic histrionic stew—and 2004 Best Picture–winner—Crash. Five years after Paul Haggis’s directorial debut comes the team of Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti.
It’s much too easy to call “Ajami’’ an Arab-Israeli “Crash,’’ but it’s a pretty good place to start.
Comparisons to “Crash” are inevitable, as are observations that “Ajami” takes what “Crash” tried to do and does a much, much better job of it.
Yes, it's a Middle Eastern Babel or Crash, and its chapter sections and temporal shifts have an artifice at odds with the doggedly realistic filmmaking style.
The two new Israeli co-directing filmmakers, Yaron Shani, a Jew, and Scandar Copti, a Palestinian, surmount the Crash-like coincidences through the realistic improvised dialogue and interactions of the many nonprofessional actors whose life-stories were matched to the characters, creating a similar feel to how Fernando Meirelles and K�tia Lund integrated their nonprofessional cast�s experiences into City of God.
The structure teeters but doesn't succumb to the contrivances of Crash.
“Ajami” is an Israeli picture that closely mirrors the work of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu during his emotionally turbulent years with “Amores Perros,” “21 Grams,” and “Babel.”
Set in the multiethnic city of Jaffa, this Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film is like an Israeli Amores Perros crossed with City of God.
En pocas palabras...: Una contundente ópera prima, narrada en forma fragmentaria a la manera de Amores Perros o Crash, que retrata con brutal honestidad la vida en un conflictivo vecindario de Jaffa.
The two new Israeli co-directing filmmakers, Yaron Shani, a Jew, and Scandar Copti, a Palestinian, surmount the Crash-like coincidences through the realistic improvised dialogue and interactions of the many nonprofessional actors whose life-stories were matched to the characters, creating a similar feel to how Fernando Meirelles and K�tia Lund integrated their nonprofessional cast�s experiences into City of God.
Indeed, comparing it to some of Amos Gitai's better films ( Yom Yom , Alila , etc.) it feels rather graceless, and compared to something like City of God , it feels practically inert.
Set in the multiethnic city of Jaffa, this Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film is like an Israeli Amores Perros crossed with City of God.
By showing how people fail to live together – in a film you could call Israel’s City of God, with its sectarian-feuding story lent power and immediacy by improvisation and non-professional casting – Ajami shows how they might or should live together.