Au-delà des murs

Even without the giveaway English title ('Beyond the Walls') it's obvious this powerful Israeli prison drama is only a microcosm of a much a much larger conflict. But what's surprising is that so political a film can also be so impartial: the anonymous penitentiary is not just a setting where Arabs and Jews are forced to coexist, but also a place where no one is innocent, where PLO bombers rub shoulders with Israeli rapists and drug addicts. Because of the uncompromising subject matter it's not always an easy film to watch, but director Uri Barbash should be commended for making a strong statement without allowing it to dominate the storyline. The political overtones legitimize (and humanize) what might have been just another cellblock melodrama, suggesting that hatred may be politically expedient (the authorities encourage it to keep the prisoners at each other's throats), but mutual survival depends on cooperation, in this case by a joint Arab/Israeli hunger strike.