TEL AVIV ON FIRE

Director: Sameh Zoabi

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Screenwriter: Sameh Zoabi and Dan Kleinman.

Cast: Kais Nashef, Lubna Azabal, Yaniv Biton.

 

When so much else has failed, is it possible that a cheesy Arabic soap opera (Tel Aviv on Fire) set during the Six-Day War, loved by viewers on both sides of the border, can ease tensions between Israelis and Palestinians? When a low-level consultant on the show (Kais Nashef) is overheard boasting about his connections, he is pulled aside by an Israeli border guard (Yaniv Biton). It turns out his wife is a big fan, and the guard’s requests for spoilers escalate into demands that the Palestinian spy (Lubna Azabal) switch sides and work for Israel. Kais Nashef won a Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Horizons Festival as the bumbling go-between, in this good-natured comedy that finds something to spoof everywhere it turns.

“Palestinian writer-director Sameh’s film is about sympathy and listening to both sides, and his irreverence is charming.” Brad Wheeler, Toronto Globe and Mail.