This funny and charming movie is about a Palestinian slacker named Salam who works on a famous Israeli soap opera. Each day, he has to pass a tough Israeli checkpoint to get to work and in an attempt to make things easier for himself, he agrees to change the ending of the soap opera to please the officer in charge of the checkpoint. At the same time, a temperamental French actress and his Palestinian love interest wish for opposite endings to the show. Stuck between love and politics, Salam has to navigate a complex situation to please all sides. There are a lot of hummus jokes.
"This farce is far more pointed when it operates on a macro level."
— David Ehrlich
Salam, an inexperienced young Palestinian man, becomes a writer on a popular soap opera after a chance meeting with an Israeli soldier. His creative career is on the rise - until the soldier and the show's financial backers disagree about how the show should end, and Salam is caught in the middle.
Venice
2 wins
European Film Awards
1 nomination
"Following a soap opera that muddles through the day to day, Sameh Zoabi's film is lightweight and a little repetitive, but its valuable insight is that in many senses, political reality works in rather the same way."
— Jonathan Romney