Ajami is an 2010 Oscar nominated Foreign Film. The Movie is directed by an Arab Israeli and an Israeli Directors. The movie was representing Israel at the Academy Awards and that was on the reasons I didn't wish it will win.... I know what some of you might think. But yes! I don't recognize Israel. And no! I'm not an anti-Semite. The other reason I didn't wish it to win is that I was rooting for the movie that actually won [El Secreto De Sus Ojos] and I do believe it deserved the winning.
Ajami is the name of a neighborhood in Jaffa where Muslim and Christian Palestinians live. The movie traces down the lives of several people living there including a storyline about a Jewish family who lost their son in ambiguous circumstances.
The movie is one of the best I've seen this year. It is emotionally intense and keeps your heart beating quickly all through the way.
The directing of the movie is amazing. The angles that the camera were moving in is superb with the variation between intimate close ups and drowsy landscapes.
The sounds in the movie played a vital role in creating the environment and the feeling of the story.
Music when played were an integral part of the scene creating an invisible character rather than an add-on effect.
The movie consists of several chapters. Each chapter reveal one part of the storyline. But then repetitions of certain events happen, though in each chapter it is shown from a different perspective and through the lives of different people. Part of the enchantment of this movie is realizing how the world is a small place and how the lives of strangers are still connected on different levels. And how at the end of the day the lives of strangers around us are the lives of ourselves too.
Another important element of this movie is the fact that most of the actors and actresses in this movie are normal people with no experience in acting what so ever. This fact gave the movie a more realistic feeling and at some points you might think it is a documentary and not a fiction.
There are parts of the storyline that I didn't like as a Palestinian myself. But from an artistic point of view away from my direct emotional attachments this movie is a great one!
One of the things that usually draw me to any movie is how human it is... this movie is very humane... dealing with human feelings of family bonds, motherhood, brotherhood and love. These feelings are recurring events in the lives of the different characters. This as well shock you as to how our lives are still similar.
On of the feelings being portrayed was the feeling of sudden shock of sadness.
== Spoiler Alert ==
This happened first for a Jewish policeman who was looking for his missing brother. When the army found the body of his brother he ran to see it. Of course the Israeli soldiers tried to stop him from approaching the discovery scene and then you see a fight between a man desperate to see his lost brother and the army who needs to keep everything in order.
Later on the movie a Palestinian guy is notified that his best friend was found dead in his apartment. The same way, he runs to his friend's place just to see him and maybe understand how come his friend is dead. But again a fight between him and the Israeli Police happens where they try to stop him and he on the other hand fight to get to the crime scene. The sad part is, not only he was kept away from his friend's body but was then sent to jail for assaulting the police.
== End of Spoiler ==
The last scene of the movie is a masterpiece. Sounds were the master of that scene. The shock you'll get is something that you'll have to carry with you for a while... until you'll be able to understand how can life go on for the people in the movie after that. And in a deeper sense to yourself too.
All in all [Ajami] is a movie I would surely recommend for anyone to see... a masterpiece by two young directors.
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