'Ajami' casts harsh light on Israel's other Arab conflict

JAFFA, Israel — In the mixed neighbourhood of the Israeli film "Ajami," Jews and Arabs rub shoulders on the same quiet, leafy streets, never knowing when someone is going to draw a knife.The film, the third Israeli production to be nominated for an Academy Award in as many years, offers a rare look at the country's Arab minority, a fifth of the population often overshadowed by the larger Middle East conflict."Most Israelis don't know what's going on in places like Ajami. Most of their attention is drawn to the big conflict with the Palestinians who live outside Israel," said Yaron Shani, 37, the Israeli co-director of the film.The film, named for the Jaffa neighbourhood just south of Tel Aviv where it takes place, follows several characters fiercely divided by clan, religion and ethnicity as they are fatefully thrown together in Ajami's criminal underworld."It shows you how deep the difference is, how segregated this reality is. And when you live in this reality, it's not surprising that every once in a while you see an outburst of horrifying violence," Shani said.There is the main character Omar, an Israeli Arab teenager who peddles drugs to try to pay off a blood feud with a Bedouin family after they try to kill him but mistakenly guns down a neighbour in broad daylight.And Malek, a 16-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank who sneaks into Israel illegally to earn money to pay for life-saving surgery for his mother, who is in an Israeli hospital.Chance sets them on a collision course with Dando, an Israeli undercover cop in search of his vanished brother, with the tragic course of events narrated by Nasri, Omar's little brother.Here the Middle East conflict springs, not from an age-old dispute over territory, but an infectious tribalism bred by seething distrust and the need to defend boundaries -- ethnic, religious and familial -- at all costs.Shani and Israeli Arab co-director Scandar Copti, 34, cast local residents instead of professional actors in all the roles and provided them with loose scenario

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