Ajami (2009)
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 65
Fresh: 63 | Rotten: 2
This multi-character drama balances intimate portrayals and broad political implications to paint a bracing and moving portrait of the Middle East conflict.
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Critic Reviews: 21
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 0
This multi-character drama balances intimate portrayals and broad political implications to paint a bracing and moving portrait of the Middle East conflict.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 6,697
My Rating
Movie Info
Palestinian Scandar Copti and Israeli Yaron Shani collaborated on this independent drama, which examines how the troubled relationship between their countries colors everyday life in the Middle East. Nasri (Fouad Habash) is a teenager whose family is in crisis: his uncle got into an altercation with a local crime boss, and in reprisal, his cousin has been murdered. The shooters, it seems, originally intended to kill Nasri's younger brother, Omar (Shahir Kabaha), in lieu of the cousin. Abu Elias
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Cast
-
Shahir Kabaha
Omar -
Ibrahim Frege
Malek -
Fouad Habash
Nasri -
Youssef Sahwani
Abu Elias -
Scandar Copti
Binj -
Ghassan Ashkar
Nasri's Uncle -
Eran Naim
Dando -
Nisrin Rihan
Ilham -
Ranin Karim
Hadir -
Sigal Harel
Dando's sister
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All Critics (65) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (63) | Rotten (3) | DVD (3)
This is vividly challenging, utterly inclusive and heartfelt cinema. It's not only gripping to watch, but it'll open your eyes to the intractable human conundrums behind the blood-stained headlines.
Top CriticThe performances are searingly intense, all delivered by non-professionals cast to type and extemporizing within the parameters of the script. They take the play out of acting, and the effect is unvarnished realism.
Any given half-hour of the film has dramatic impact; at two hours, it's a power punch to the gut.
The fact that these two Israelis from opposite camps worked together to make this movie is as important as the movie itself.
A compelling drama about prejudice and folly.
It's a film that rewards close attention, involving disparate characters whose lives intersect over the course of several chapters.
Una contundente ópera prima, narrada en forma fragmentaria a la manera de Amores Perros o Crash, que retrata con brutal honestidad la vida en un conflictivo vecindario de Jaffa. Estupendo elenco de actores no profesionales.
Gripping modern-day drama about crime and tensions among the Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs.
... acutely insightful about the social divisions within Israel, but it examines them without scolding or sentimentality.
Ajami continues the tedious trend of films that purposefully muddle interlocking stories to prove simplistic notions about hotbed issues, wrapping them in a familiarly tragic bow for maximum affect.
A confident contemporary crime thriller that, yes, may rely on perhaps a few too many plot coincidences to hang together, but otherwise offers a bracing insight into a troubled situation without hectoring us with insipid platitudes.
Stories of violence, revenge and corruption smartly told by next-gen foreign filmmakers
The actors, every one of them new to their craft, make the everydayness of the picture indelible and real.
The pattern of connections and coincidences is a little overschematic, but the movie has energy, especially in the grippingly real shooting scene at the beginning.
A rare film that will force you to confront your own prejudices.
Ajami has an appealingly rough-edged, authentic feel to it, thanks to some strong location work and the fact that the cast is drawn largely from non-professionals and real life locals.
By showing how people fail to live together - in a film you could call Israel's City of God, with its sectarian-feuding story lent power and immediacy by improvisation and non-professional casting - Ajami shows how they might or should live together.
Ajami may be set in Israel, but at times it plays more like an American gangster drama. The film does address the ethnic and social tensions that run through the country, but it does so in a nuanced and refreshingly clear-eyed way.
The movie is insightful in revealing how messy life can be with enemies living in close proximity to one another. The press notes point out the...
While Quentin Tarantino used the narrative device to give his film a caffeinated jolt of hipster cool, co-directors Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani use it brilliantly to show the chaotic web of violence that traps Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.
A deceptive movie, one that introduces its characters in the heat of violence, allows us to make conclusions based on what we see, then shatters our assumptions in the telling of how that moment came about.
Ajami is a powerful crime drama in which all are heroes and all are villains.
Contrivances bring this bunch together, and the plotting gets a little too complicated and convoluted. Luckily, these are characters that feel real, whose problems are relatable.
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February 4, 2010:
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It wasn't until over an hour into the film that I finally figured out what was going on. The directors use an Tarantino-esque style of fractured narration and points of view, and though it may have been my fault - I might have been slow on the uptake - the story-telling was not as crisp as Tarantino, who is able to introduce all his characters in a short period of time without letting plot lines dangle too long.
That said, once Ajami revealed itself, I found it remarkably compelling. Every moment rang with verisimilitude, and it felt like I was watching real people's lives unfold in a tragic, star-crossed land.
Compared to other genuine films about Israel/Palestine, like Laila's Birthday, Ajami is much darker, almost hopeless. Its message is a desperate condemnation of the hatred and violence that suffuse everyday life in the directors' homelands.
Overall, I think now that you know you can trust the directors' storytelling - that you know that it all makes sense by the end - you might be able to enjoy the hell out of this important film.