esrosedotblog

VICIOUS CIRCLES

Today's film, the Israeli

Ajami (2010)

which is a section of Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv.

This film is constructed in six chapters which interlink. A few are out of sequence but, as in a good novel, they illuminate the present. Show not tell. A group of characters are connected in what is basically an underground life. Illegals, drug dealers, arab tribal vendettas, along with police and army make a rich stew.

What seems to be disconnected is finally connected.

The style is docudrama. Quite realistic. Nothing, not even death, is glamorized or made unreal.

The actors are not professionals for the most part. It all works.

This was a candidate for the foreign film Oscars and is a NYTimes Critics Choice.

I was deeply engaged. There are shocks and some degree of consolation in the situations shown in this totally fucked up section of the world.

There are no sides in this. Only the people whether Jews or Arabs or Christians or Muslims.

A taste of the complexities involved there.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films