Ajami

Ajami is a story of how cultural conflict leads to mistrust, crime, and murder among the residents of a “melting pot” town in the Jaffa region of Israel. The creators of the film, Israel’s official entry to this year’s Acadamy Awards, are young filmmakers from different backgrounds that reflect the complexity of their story. Yaron Shani is an Israeli Jew who won acclaim in film school, and Scandar Copti is an Israeli Palestinian raised in Jaffa. Mining their documentary experience and different cultural perspectives, they have created an engaging story that feels realistic and is told in a way that creates suspense, mystery, and ultimately heartache.

Although Ajami is very specific in locale and character, there is also a universal element that grounds it in the conventions of the crime genre and in the experiences of multiethnic rivalry. People from three social groups--Israeli Jews, Christian Arabs, and Muslim Arabs--struggle to survive as their lives are turned into chaos by the unremitting violence that surrounds them. The story begins with the words of Nasri, a young Muslim boy who creates beautiful pencil drawings of his friends and family. But there is dread of expectation in his voice. Just outside his window a young neighbor works to change the tire of a car that he has bought from Omar, Nasri’s older brother. Within moments a motorcycle appears, and another drive-by killing occurs. Nasri knows that his family is responsible--this was not the beginning of the violence, it is a continuation. His uncle shot a member of a rival clan, and now the gang is out for revenge.

The killing sets off a story that follows Omar as he attempts to resolve the vendetta. The narrative inevitably involves the intersecting lives of people across the cultural divide who have suffered loss and are determined to protect their own--and to seek vengeance. Omar is in love with Hadir, a young Christian Arab woman who is also the daughter of the man he works for. Abu Elias, her wealthy father, threatens to break her bones before letting her see Omar. A young Christian Arab named Malek learns that his mother is gravely ill and the only solution is to raise almost $70,000 for a life-saving operation. Omar as well learns that only money will save his family from further pain--in a wonderfully acted scene of mediation between the rival clans it is ultimately decreed that his family must pay over $50,000 to settle the feud. In a society without wealth there are no legal ways to raise such sums--both young men are drawn into a drug deal that they hope will turn around their lives. Dondi, an Israeli policeman, works the streets of Jaffa, a hopeless task of trying to gain the trust of his enemies. He has his life torn apart as well by the disappearance of his brother, a soldier in the Israeli army.

The filmmakers have taken a good story and elevated it with unusual and effective approaches to filmmaking. Although the acting is outstanding and incredibly believable, most of  the cast was found on the streets and in the homes of Jaffa. They created a workshop environment for seven months, putting the actors though improvised rehearsals, based on a tight story outline, to develop character personalities. They did not present a script; the actors did not know what was going to happen before working on each scene. Ajami was shot in chronological order, something that is almost never done in narrative, to create a sense of surprise as the story unfolded in front of multiple cameras. The directors felt that the potential for spontaneity by the untrained actors would outweigh the benefit of following a text--and the film achieves these results.

Told in a series of chapters that add suspense by revealing only part of the developing narrative, Ajami also moves back and forth in time. It is a good technique that elevates the story through mystery and adds layers of meaning to events that at first seem clear-cut. Unfortunately, the chapters do not reveal when they take place (i.e., “three days earlier”), creating an unnecessary sense of confusion. Through repetition and the reappearance of a character who has already died we understand that the film uses flashbacks, but the time lost trying to figure this out distracts from an already complex story. That being said, it is a small annoyance in an otherwise moving and satisfying film.

                                    Thomas W. Campbell