Israelis cast aside differences

A new Israeli film, Ajami, which opens in the UK this week, tells the story of co-existence amid mutual suspicion in the eponymous neighbourhood in Jaffa – chosen because this is a district where Jews, Muslims and Christians are able to live together as neighbours, despite their emnity.

The film, itself a Jewish-Arab collaboration by Jewish writer/director Yaron Shani and his Arab-Israeli colleague Scandar Copti, tells the stories of a small group of characters.

Nasri is an Arab teenager whose family is caught up in a feud; Malek, a Palestinian, has entered Israel illegally to find work in order to finance life-saving surgery for his mother; Binj is an Arab who dreams of a future with his Jewish girlfriend, and Dando is a Jewish police detective whose soldier brother has gone missing.

The film, whose cast is made up entirely of non-professional performers, was shot chronologically and improvisationally. The process took over seven years to complete.