It’s Tel Aviv in 2016 and the parties are wild. Drinking, dancing, snorting, kissing — it’s time for twenty-year olds to have fun and be alive. But whereas in America you’d get looks of jealousy at best or judgment at worst, culture dictates heavier consequences for three Palestinian women living in the Israeli metropolis. There’s the liberal party girl attorney (Mouna Hawa‘s Laila), Christian communist lesbian DJ (Sana Jammalieh‘s Salma), and devout Muslim computer science major Nour (Shaden Kanboura) all trying to embrace their individuality and independence amongst friends/family who don’t approve, pretend to approve, or legitimately choose to understand the nuance twenty-first century living provides. They grow together in Maysaloun Hamoud‘s feature debut Bar Bahar [In Between] as sisters, able to look past differences straight to the heart.
The title describes these characters as in-flux: no longer adolescents unsure of their futures but as...
The title describes these characters as in-flux: no longer adolescents unsure of their futures but as...
- 9/22/2016
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Chicago – Remember that episode of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” where Rob and Laura Petrie become convinced that the baby they took home from the hospital is not their own? Imagine if they were right and that 18 years had passed before they came to this crushing realization. And imagine if the birth parents weren’t a kindly black couple, and instead the Petrie’s sworn enemies?
That’s what occurs, more or less, in Lorraine Levy’s deeply moving French drama, “The Other Son,” in which two sets of parents—one Israeli, the other Palestinian—learn that they’ve been mistakenly raising each others’ child. Instead of devolving into a knee-jerk melodrama where speechifying compensates for character depth, Levy’s film unfolds into a warmly humanistic, richly empathetic portrait of families learning to transcend the boundaries of their culture. Since Levy is neither Israeli nor Palestinian, she’s able to bring a clear-eyed,...
That’s what occurs, more or less, in Lorraine Levy’s deeply moving French drama, “The Other Son,” in which two sets of parents—one Israeli, the other Palestinian—learn that they’ve been mistakenly raising each others’ child. Instead of devolving into a knee-jerk melodrama where speechifying compensates for character depth, Levy’s film unfolds into a warmly humanistic, richly empathetic portrait of families learning to transcend the boundaries of their culture. Since Levy is neither Israeli nor Palestinian, she’s able to bring a clear-eyed,...
- 3/27/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Changelings: Israel Vs. Palestine Gets Nature Vs. Nurture Fable in Levy’s Latest
The age old Israeli-Palestinian conflict gets a dramatic facelift in French writer/director Lorraine Levy’s latest film, The Other Son. This tale of babies switched at birth is basically a fable that one imagines would seem to be a more tragic nightmare scenario in its land of origin than less volatile shores. However, the dramatic arc is not, of course, the switcheroo, but rather that the switch involves an Israeli and Palestinian baby. Now, after eighteen years, the mistake gets discovered, exposing results like those expected of a grand social experiment.
Joseph (Jules Sitruk), a nearly eighteen year old aspiring musician is about to enter into his mandatory military duty with the air force. His mother, the French born physician Orith (Emmanuelle Devos), notices that the blood test results from his physical examinations cannot possibly be correct.
The age old Israeli-Palestinian conflict gets a dramatic facelift in French writer/director Lorraine Levy’s latest film, The Other Son. This tale of babies switched at birth is basically a fable that one imagines would seem to be a more tragic nightmare scenario in its land of origin than less volatile shores. However, the dramatic arc is not, of course, the switcheroo, but rather that the switch involves an Israeli and Palestinian baby. Now, after eighteen years, the mistake gets discovered, exposing results like those expected of a grand social experiment.
Joseph (Jules Sitruk), a nearly eighteen year old aspiring musician is about to enter into his mandatory military duty with the air force. His mother, the French born physician Orith (Emmanuelle Devos), notices that the blood test results from his physical examinations cannot possibly be correct.
- 10/22/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Title: The Other Son (Le fils de l’autre) Cohen Media Group Director: Lorraine Lévy Screenwriter: Lorraine Lévy, Nathalie Saugeon Cast: Emmanuelle Devos, Pascal Elbé, Jules Sitruk, Mehdi Dehbi, Areen Omari, Khalifa Natour, Mahmoud Shalabi Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 9/5/12 Opens: October 21, 2012 The other day I posed a question to myself. Osama bin Laden, like hundreds of millions of fellow Muslims, believed that Christians and Jews and most people in the West are infidels. Let’s imagine that bin Laden had been born in Paris of parents who are both French Catholics. What would his religion be? Catholic, of course. Conclusion? What a person believes theologically depends on geography [ Read More ]...
- 9/6/2012
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Having children switched at birth is difficult enough for the families involved, but imagine if the hospital mix-up wound up unmooring the parents' core beliefs. That's the conceit of "The Other Son," which tells the story of two families -- one Israeli and one Palestinian -- whose sons were accidentally swapped at birth.
Directed by French filmmaker Lorraine Lévy, "The Other Son" stars a multi-national troupe of actors -- Emmanuelle Devos, Pascal Elbé, Jules Sitruk, Mehdi Dehbi, Areen Omari, Khalifa Natour, Mahmood Shalabi and. Bruno Podalydes -- something Lévy felt should extend to the crew as well.
"We wanted it to be a project that brought people together," the director said in press notes. "I asked our Israeli executive producer to give a copy of the screenplay (translated into English) to each of the crew members. It was very important to me that the electrician or grip working on this...
Directed by French filmmaker Lorraine Lévy, "The Other Son" stars a multi-national troupe of actors -- Emmanuelle Devos, Pascal Elbé, Jules Sitruk, Mehdi Dehbi, Areen Omari, Khalifa Natour, Mahmood Shalabi and. Bruno Podalydes -- something Lévy felt should extend to the crew as well.
"We wanted it to be a project that brought people together," the director said in press notes. "I asked our Israeli executive producer to give a copy of the screenplay (translated into English) to each of the crew members. It was very important to me that the electrician or grip working on this...
- 8/28/2012
- by Christopher Rosen
- Huffington Post
Moonrise Kingdom (12A)
(Wes Anderson, 2012, Us) Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray. 94 mins
Anderson's signature meticulous, deadpan retro-chic works best when it's tethered to something tangibly real, as this is, historically and emotionally. Set on an island microcosm of 1965 America, it details the touching elopement of two precocious but naive pre-teens, and the grown-up chaos and crises their clandestine outdoors adventure provokes. It's a stylised storm in a teacup, packed with visual flourishes, cultural footnotes and the usual dry comedy. But beneath the playfulness are some deceptively mature observations on the pain that comes with both childhood and adulthood.
Men In Black 3 (PG)
(Barry Sonnenfeld, 2012, Us) Will Smith, Josh Brolin, Alice Eve. 106 mins
A time-travel twist facilitates a return to the 1960s and the golden age of conspiracy theories, which goes a long way to justifying a sequel no one was particularly screaming out for.
(Wes Anderson, 2012, Us) Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray. 94 mins
Anderson's signature meticulous, deadpan retro-chic works best when it's tethered to something tangibly real, as this is, historically and emotionally. Set on an island microcosm of 1965 America, it details the touching elopement of two precocious but naive pre-teens, and the grown-up chaos and crises their clandestine outdoors adventure provokes. It's a stylised storm in a teacup, packed with visual flourishes, cultural footnotes and the usual dry comedy. But beneath the playfulness are some deceptively mature observations on the pain that comes with both childhood and adulthood.
Men In Black 3 (PG)
(Barry Sonnenfeld, 2012, Us) Will Smith, Josh Brolin, Alice Eve. 106 mins
A time-travel twist facilitates a return to the 1960s and the golden age of conspiracy theories, which goes a long way to justifying a sequel no one was particularly screaming out for.
- 5/25/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
World War Two is one of the most cinematically adapted periods of modern history, with countless films released offering an insight into the horrific war. Yet Ismaël Ferroukhi’s Free Men takes somewhat of a different stance, delving into the harsh subject matter from a Muslim perspective, offering an intriguingly original take on tales we’ve been told several times.
Set in German-occupied Paris in 1943, we follow the life of Algerian immigrant and grafter Younes (Tahar Rahim), surviving on his own by selling goods to fellow refugees. However, following an arrest, he is blackmailed into becoming a spy for the law enforcement – as the police want him to inform them of wrongdoings taking place at the local Mosque, where they suspect the Muslims are providing fake identities for Jews hiding in Paris. The rector, Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit (Michael Lonsdale), uses an intense degree of charm and intelligence to keep the law at bay,...
Set in German-occupied Paris in 1943, we follow the life of Algerian immigrant and grafter Younes (Tahar Rahim), surviving on his own by selling goods to fellow refugees. However, following an arrest, he is blackmailed into becoming a spy for the law enforcement – as the police want him to inform them of wrongdoings taking place at the local Mosque, where they suspect the Muslims are providing fake identities for Jews hiding in Paris. The rector, Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit (Michael Lonsdale), uses an intense degree of charm and intelligence to keep the law at bay,...
- 5/25/2012
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
I really wanted to love this film. I’m fascinated by stories of the French Resistance during World War II, as I knew this was before I saw it, and by the time it was over, I was stunned by its audacity, for it tells a tale of immigrant Algerian Muslims in Paris who sheltered immigrant Algerian Jews in the cavernous Paris mosque and also provided them with false papers testifying to their Islamic faith. What’s more, this really happened, though it has been up until recently a mostly unknown history of the war. (See this New York Times article for more on the film’s background.) There’s potential for real power and a stinging lesson for today’s world here... and yet the execution is disappointingly prosaic. Perhaps the problem lies in how director and coscreenwriter (with Alain-Michel Blanc: The Concert) Ismaël Ferroukhi chose to fashion...
- 5/25/2012
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
A Bottle in the Gaza Sea
Directed by Thierry Binisti
Written by Thierry Binisti and Valérie Zenatti
France/Canada/Israel, 2011
Friends who want to stay friends don’t discuss religion or politics. Contentious and divisive, discussions about these hot topic issues tend to lead to fiery debates, with interlockers entrenched in their predisposed ideologies. Verbal disputes that stem from these discussions tend to take focus away from, and overshadow, the genuine friendship underneath, and no case is more exemplary than in A Bottle in the Gaza Sea.
In Israel, a French expatriate, named Tal (Agathe Bonitzer), is irreversibly changed when she experiences a terrorist attack at her local café. In search of peace and understanding, she places a message of good will into an empty bottle, and has her brother, an Israeli soldier, throw it into the Gaza Sea.
NaÏm (Mahmud Shalaby), a teenager living in Palestine, receives the message,...
Directed by Thierry Binisti
Written by Thierry Binisti and Valérie Zenatti
France/Canada/Israel, 2011
Friends who want to stay friends don’t discuss religion or politics. Contentious and divisive, discussions about these hot topic issues tend to lead to fiery debates, with interlockers entrenched in their predisposed ideologies. Verbal disputes that stem from these discussions tend to take focus away from, and overshadow, the genuine friendship underneath, and no case is more exemplary than in A Bottle in the Gaza Sea.
In Israel, a French expatriate, named Tal (Agathe Bonitzer), is irreversibly changed when she experiences a terrorist attack at her local café. In search of peace and understanding, she places a message of good will into an empty bottle, and has her brother, an Israeli soldier, throw it into the Gaza Sea.
NaÏm (Mahmud Shalaby), a teenager living in Palestine, receives the message,...
- 5/3/2012
- by Justin Li
- SoundOnSight
The last time most of us saw Tahar Rahim, he was making unorthodox use of razor blades in A Prophet. Now he's back in Free Men, a story about the French Resistance that has a slightly different emphasis to the usual. And here are a new trailer and poster for the film.The film sees Rahim as a young Frenchman of Algerian origin who survives in the early years of the German Occupation of Paris as a black marketeer. But his situation soon becomes more complicated: he's blackmailed by the Germans into spying on a Paris mosque and its leader (Michael Lonsdale) and becomes inspired to join the Resistance by the people he meets there. While this trailer is similar to others out there, there are a few new snippets included. brightcove.createExperiences();The film also stars Mahmud Shalaby and Lubna Azabal, and is directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi. Free Men...
- 4/20/2012
- EmpireOnline
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