Jaffa

If you ever thought dysfunctional families are only the stuff that American films are made of...guess again. 'Jaffa' is a sad tale of just such a dysfunctional family living in one of the oldest continuing sea port towns in Isreal,dating back to the Bronze age. It tells the story of the Wolf family. Reuven,the father of the brood,owns & operates a small garage that employs his son,Meir,a young man with a chip on his shoulder that's the size of the middle east,his daughter,Mali,who seems to be the invisible member of the family,Tawfig,an Arab,who is in love with Mali,and Tawfig's father. Osnat,who is the Mother of Meir & Mali,who is something of a control fanatic,runs the household with an iron hand. Meir harbors a bitter resentment to having to work in the garage,when he would rather just sit around,smoke cigarettes & drink coffee,as well as a hatred of Tawfig,and all Arabs in general. He is constantly arguing with his family & is always spoiling for a fight. When he picks a fight with Tawfig,and is accidentally killed in that fight,Tawfig ends up doing a nine year stretch in prison. Mali discovers she is three months pregnant with Tawfig's baby,and attempts to get an abortion. What transpires from here on is what the director calls an homage to Egyptian cinema (the plot line,or at least elements of it surely seems to be lifted from one of Oum Kalsoum's songs). Many hidden secrets are revealed,as well as tears shed. Keren Yedaya ('Or') directs & co writes the screenplay (with Ilia Ben Porat),with a flair for the occasional sojourn into soapsuds. Dana Ivgy is Mali,who turns in a bravura acting job. Ronit Elkabetz is her controlling mother,Osnat,in a role that just smacks of "not nice person". Moni Moshonov is Reuven, a brow beaten man who has had most of the man beaten out of him by his shrewish wife,Osnat,and who just shrugs his way thru life. Roy Assaf absolutely drips with contempt as Mali's younger brother,Meir,and Mahmoud Shalaby plays Mali's love interest,Tawfig. The rest of the splendid cast is rounded out by Hussein Yassin Mahajneh,Lily Ivgy, Zenabh Mahrab & Dalya Beger. If you enjoy a well written,directed & acted drama,look no further. Spoken in Hebrew & Arabic with English subtitles. Not rated by the MPAA,this film contains outbursts of crude language,intimations of adult content (but nothing graphically depicted on screen),and a moment of sudden,bloody violence

The title, Jaffa, gives us only a location. In the suburbs of Tel-Aviv, Jaffa is a place of biblical mention, there are some saying it is derived from the name Japheth, son of Noah. It currently has a mixed population, more than a third are Israeli Arabs.

Keren Yedaya gifts us again a remarkable experience, presenting a difficult moral story from a neutral point of view, unbiased and yet strongly moving. The script is by Yedaya and Ben Porat, the cast is -as most Israeli movies-impeccable. Dana Ivgy, Ronit Elkabetz (an amazing bandwidth actress, "Late Marriage"2001 "The Band's visit"-2007), Ro'i Asaf, Mahmoud Shalaby give solidly credible performances. Whichever side of the story you may be, either the touching romance against all odds or the practical considerations of secular enmity, at the end you will reflect at length, and be enriched by this film.

With precise timing and increasing emotional leverage, Yedaya mounts a gradual increase in tension, a catastrophe and then gives us more: the wonderful struggle within the future mother. Mali (Dana Ivgy) is caught between her family, her religion and her other family, the one she dreamed of creating... but she must tell her parents about the child's father.

Scenes of great emotional intensity are shot in vignettes brimming with concealed pain... At the end of the film, the debate is far from close, but the hope, the child of both Israeli and Arab is something we have in front of us, unmistakenly. Great music by Shushan runs plangently through the end credits, rightly nominated to a Camera d'Or at Cannes film festival.

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Wow! This is an excellent movie and does a great job of demonstrating love through all sorts of challenges. I really enjoyed the performance by Ronit Elkabetz as I have seen her in "The Band's Visit". It was fun to watch. There was also a great performance by Dana Ivgy, who portrayed Mali Wolf. She appeared so innocent and believable as the daughter who falls for a Palestinian worker and decides to keep it a secret from her family - even after becoming pregnant.

While I have no idea if it represented the relationships between Jews and Palestines, I really hope that these type of relationships happen each and every day in their world. There is a chance for peace!!

For once let's just separate the politics from the movie reviews for once when reviewing titles from anywhere in the middle east or war zones. This is a typical love story as they are made all over the world and.... boy is it worth watching.

When the spoiled and jealous son of Reuvens body shop/garage provokes one of the mechanics Toufik one time to many all lives involved are forced to change. Toufik and the daughter of the owner Mali have their own secrets and over time things can no longer be hidden.

It's a solid love story, drama. Well acted, well done. No big political issues or statements here. Just a very solid drama, well told, well acted with likable characters. Thats good enough already without political statement.

The realism. The complexity of the plot and in spite of the complexity, the movie had good integrity. Amazing acting. Sat through rooted to my seat as if I was watching a thriller and I can't even remember which thriller. The love. Most of the characters are very mature and portray largeness of heart. Inspite, there are certain differences that you just can't break. These get built into the psyche purely based on your circumstance. The racial hostility between a jew and an arab makes sense to a jew and an arab but not to an Indian. The actors. There were so many actors who have done excellent excellent work. The Arab, the nonchalance with which he performs, he almost looks like he strayed into the camera field without knowing. The way he comes out of jail and his expression changes as he sees his brothers. None of the theatrics, just a smile. The father has done a great job. The mother. The sister. The brother - every one. To me, there is no actor in the movie except may be the Arab's mother and sister. The direction is excellent too. I think most of the movie is shot in low lighting. The setting is also very dry. The movie felt so real, It could pass off as a documentary.However, there were challenging shots for actors to perform too. It was great story telling - uncomplicated technique. The viewer is given full time to appreciate the situation. It is not like those Hollywood movies where one wacky dialogue you miss , you miss the plot and then you go back and admire - oh what a tricky way to convey. Nonsense. This one was direct. Dil Se. You can feel the warmth of the relationships in spite of the fact that no elaborate situation has been built artificially to convey this