Le fils de l'autre

Two teenage boys and their families, living on either side of the Israeli-Palestinian border, come to know that the boys were accidentally switched after their birth in a hospital. Such a situation set across such an enmity-filled landscape could very well be expected to escalate into chaos and violence, but thankfully, the uneasy situation and the extraordinary story is well handled, and without being melodramatic.

Lorraine Levy skilfully and essentially makes it a general human story, getting past its national and traditional boundaries. It tries to question identity in the face of change; genetics vs upbringing, religion, goals, where do we actually belong?, and what actually matters? The two teenage leading characters in the movie, Joseph and Yacine, deal with the situation and these questions with a certain level of maturity and sensibility, which comes from their background of education and non-inclination towards religious extremism. It also helps that the two sets of parents are intelligent and good-willed people who guide the boys to an informed and sensible transition. And that's where the beauty of the story lies.

The acting by the two leads, Jules Sitruk and Mehdi Dehbi, and the remaining cast is commendable, but it's Emmanuelle Devos, as Joseph's mother, who stands out from the rest. The scene in which the details of the birth-switching is disclosed to the two families is quite heart-rending. And the scene in which Joseph, in a moment of inspiration, starts singing an Arabic song in front of his birth-family to distract everyone from the awkward atmosphere, is quite delightful.

(A particular song used in the trailer as well as the movie, Yael Naim's 'My Dreams', is quite a beautiful and meaningful one)

While the world continues to struggle to understand the constant schism between Palestine and Israel and yet permutations of that unsettled hot fire whose coals continue to smolder between aggressive flares, along comes a film such as this one - THE OTHER SON or Le fils de l'autre - and provides some insights that at least for the moment offer a better understanding of a very long struggle. Based on an idea by Noam Fitoussi who wrote the screenplay with Director Lorraine Lévy and Nathalie Saugeon, this is a gentle film about resolution of conflict - at least on the family level. It is a French production filmed in the West Bank and Israel under the sensitive direction of Lorraine Lévy.

It's not uncommon for those who rightly resent being biologically categorized on government questionnaires, to defiantly write in 'human' when asked to indicate their race. And the same holds true in its own compelling but curious way for the switched at birth DNA-driven identity crisis drama, The Other Son.

The relative stability of the two families in question - the Israeli Silbergs (Emmanuelle Devos and Pascal Elbéand) the Palestinian Al Bezaaz (Areen Omari, Khalifa Natourkin, and older son Mahmud Shalaby) in the West Bank - is shaken up when eighteen year old Joseph Silberg (Jules Sitruk) puts his musical aspirations on hold to report for mandatory military duty. But an army blood test confirms that he could not be the child of his parents, an odd stratagem, that a military on such permanent alert would be so thorough, especially since Joseph's father is a high ranking commander. But during a Gulf War missile attack near the Haifa hospital where Joseph was born, a Palestinian mother gave birth at the same time. And in the ensuing confusion, the babies must have been released to the wrong women. Joseph's distraught parents first waver, then seek out the Al Bezaaz family. And Yacine (Medhi Dehbi), their designated 'other son' in question, who has returned home for a visit from his medical school studies in France. While alternately fearful and hopeful mixed emotions become entangled, compounded by a profound cultural divide along with two fathers into deeply disapproving denial. Yet it is the coming together of the three 'brothers' that offers a ray of nope that in time this festering conundrum may be resolved.

The cast is splendid, especially Jules Sitruk and Medhi Dehbi whose humanity holds the story together. Highly recommended. In French, English, Arabic, and Hebrew with subtitles.

Grady Harp

The French film, "Le fils de l'autre," was shown in the U.S. with the title "The Other Son" (2012). It was co-written and directed by Lorraine Levy. As the title suggests, the movie plot hinges around two young men, born at the same time in the same hospital, who were switched by mistake. To make the situation even worse, one set of parents is Palestinian, and one is Israeli.

Once everyone comes to the realization that the mistake truly happened, the men are faced with the knowledge that their "parents" aren't their biological parents, their religion is not what it would be if the switch hadn't happened, and their position within the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been reversed.

The only good news is that both sets of parents, and both of the young men, are people of good will. They all want to work out some sort of arrangement that will make this bizarre situation a little less painful.

The knowledge about the switch is a life-altering event for all six people. How they survive--or don't survive--this event is what makes this such a fascinating film. This movie will work well on DVD. I suggest you seek it out and watch it. It will repay the effort

Baby switching error at hospital is the same motif with "Like Father, Like Son", but these movies have completely different viewpoints. In case of "Like Father, Like Son", as the wrongly switched children are still very young, the story is told from the parents viewpoint. The key question asked in the movie is: what makes the parent-child relationship true, under the biological relationship is denied. On the other hand, in case of "The Other Son", the wrongly switched children are already 18 years old, intelligent, tough-to-fudge youths. Furthermore, one is a Jew and the other is a Palestinian. Therefore, in this movie the story is told from both of parents' and children's viewpoints, more on the children's viewpoint. Thus, the title of the movie can be "The other parents" or "The other self" too.

In general, in the movies where a family faces an extraordinary problem, fathers are less reliable than mothers. In this movie too, the first reaction of the two fathers is to deny the fact. They try to think as if nothing happened. Mothers, however, immediately face the issue, share empathy with the other. Well, I am a man, but I have to agree with this development. The plot is simple. Both parents do not have complicated private background. Still, this is a heart-moving one. The most impressing scene for me was that Joshua suddenly sings at the dinner. Is it a Palestinian song?

I'm surprised that there are only two reviews - now three - of this movie on IMDb. It got a very good review when it played up in Cleveland, and since I couldn't make the trip up there to see it, I waited and rented it from Netflix. It was worth the wait.

The situation is straight out of an early Shakespeare comedy: two babies are switched at birth by mistake in a maternity ward, such that a Jewish Israeli family raises a young Arab and a Palestinian family raises a young Jewish Israeli. Just short of their 18th birthdays, they learn the truth.

The first part of the movie deals with the reactions of the four parents. All four actors give truly moving, first-rate performances. The Jewish father is an officer in the Israeli army, someone who has spent his life fighting Arabs. Still, he is torn apart by what he perceives as the loss of his son. The Arab father doesn't know how to react: is he now harboring a hated Israeli in his own poor home? But he, too, loves his son very much, and cannot deal with the thought of losing him.

The two mothers also experience a feeling of loss, but are able to speak to each other in ways that the two fathers, for political reasons, cannot.

The son of the Jewish couple finds acceptance in the Palestinian family through a mutual love of music. It is less clear how the son of the Arab couple will fit in the Jewish family. Will Yacine be able to tolerate living with an Israeli army officer? How will his family deal with that? The movie, as I said, is based on a clichéd theatrical device, but there is nothing clichéd about the acting or the script here: it all seems very real, and often very intense. It never seems fake. Unlike what the other two reviews suggest, not everything is resolved here by the end of the movie. That would have been too pat, too American-TV.

I strongly recommend this movie. It's really well done.