Israeli Films Portray Arabs in Many Different Lights

JERUSALEM —  Dealing with Arabs in literature and film has long been tricky business in Israel. Although the two peoples live cheek by jowl with one another in the cramped geography west of the Jordan River, many Israelis profess to know next to nothing about the Arabs, and so Arabs are often depicted as no more than bit players in Israeli dramas.

Nonetheless, Arab unrest on Israel’s doorstep has moved Israeli film makers to grapple with the Arab personality on film. Several Israeli-made movies shown at the Jerusalem Film Festival here recently dealt in some way with Arabs and their interaction with the dominant Israeli society.

The Israeli film view of the Arabs seems as varied as the opinions toward peace proposals now floating through the halls of power. Arabs are occasionally depicted as neighbors, sometimes as enemies, and in these heated times, sometimes both. Rare, however, is the Arab who is revealed to have an inner life that merits probing.

“That’s the point. Israelis just don’t see the Arabs. They are invisible,” said Amit Goren, a young director whose short film, “The Cage,” debuted at the festival.

“The Cage” directly took up the question of an Israeli’s perception of Arabs as opposed to reality. It dealt with the discovery by Yoav, a suave Tel Aviv bartender, that Yussuf, an unassuming Arab co-worker, leads a double life: Yussuf is not merely the docile cook whom Yoav imagined but also an active participant in the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

In straightforward scenes, the half-hour film shows Israel’s suppression of the Arab uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But the movie’s most novel points are made simply through its Tel Aviv setting.

It would have been easy to build a drama dealing with tense undercurrents in Arab-Israeli relations in, say, Jerusalem or the occupied land itself; but Tel Aviv, with its cosmopolitan outlook and active night life, is considered somewhat apart from the conflict, a place where one rarely has to think about the Arab uprising. Palestinians, if they are fixtures on the landscape at all, are confined to the role of street sweeper, construction worker or bottle washer. “The Cage” challenges such a one-dimensional viewpoint.

“In the last two years, it has become important to realize that Arabs are people and not shadows,” said Amit, who studied film at the New York University School of the Arts.

Another short, “The Shelter,” took up much the same issue, although from a purely Arab point of view. Two Arab laborers spend the night in a hidden refuge to avoid the long trip to their homes in occupied villages. One is a veteran of the underpaid, degrading life of a day laborer, the other a newcomer. During the long evening, they witness incidents of violence and corruption involving Israelis and Arabs.

The veteran worker, Abu Samir, seeks to avoid involvement in the troubles; he has bills to pay and kids to educate. The recent arrival is disgusted and, the next day, walks off the job, presumably to join the revolt.

“I wanted to show people . . . no one cares about,” said the director, Rashid Mashrawi, a Palestinian from the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

“The workers are afraid of their boss, of the police, of anyone around them. They are in an alien world.”

“The Shelter” gained attention not only for its subject matter but also because of the unusual makeup of its production team: a Palestinian director, an Israeli Arab producer from the Negev Desert and a cast and crew that included Israeli Jews and Arabs.

The film, a last-minute entry in the festival, won a $10,000 prize. Mashrawi could not be present to pick it up because his home in the Gaza Strip was under curfew and he was afraid to leave.

In contrast to the efforts at fully drawn portraits of Arabs in the two shorts, the feature film “Green Fields” dealt with Arabs in an offhanded and more traditional manner.

The story related the adventure of the Bravermans, a troubled Israeli family traveling through the West Bank on the way to an army graduation ceremony. Despite the distinctly Middle Eastern setting, the Bravermans might as well have been steaming down the Amazon or in some other exotic locale where the natives serve only as a device to introduce danger. In the film, Palestinians come and go like so many headhunters, throwing rocks instead of blowing darts, serving only as a backdrop to the portrayal of the family’s frustrations.

Director Isaac Zepel Yeshuron defended his portrayal of the Arabs by saying that since he is ignorant of Palestinians, he could not give them any deeper treatment. “I am a Zionist,” he said. “I am making movies about a Jewish family. I don’t know Arabs. It is for someone else to give them a voice.”

If “Green Fields” seems self-absorbed, that is the point, Yeshuron said. “I am saying that the average Israeli family goes through reality and does not see what they are going through,” he said.

“Green Fields” won the $35,000 top prize at the festival.

“Streets of Yesterday,” an assassination thriller, makes an effort to counter widely held views of Israelis and Palestinians. Some Israelis are killers as well as good guys, some Palestinians are good guys as well as killers. The movie begins with the killing of an Israeli official bent on talking peace with the Palestine Liberation Organization. The twists and turns of the plot suggest that individuals on all sides of the conflict are out to sabotage peace efforts.

No one in the film seems capable of expressing a strong point of view about events. Even the Israeli protagonist, when pressed to explain why he has such a close Arab friend, feels the need to respond, “I didn’t say I liked every Arab.”

Finally, a documentary called “Kfar Qara-Israel” is devoted entirely to dissecting Arab life at its most basic. The slow-paced film is something of a primer on Arab village life in Israel. The camera lingers over the props and activities of daily activity. There are lengthy shots of bowls of pickles, of a girl feeding chickens, of old men playing cards, of a traffic tie-up in the middle of town.

The scenes are interspersed with interviews making the point that the people of Kfar Qara, which has been under Israeli control for more than 40 years, feel apart and robbed of their heritage by an alien culture.

The most passionate moment occurs when a group of children express their understanding of the history of their village. “The Jews occupied most of the land, and in the future we are going to take it back,” says one smiling tyke.