DANCING ARABS

Dir. Eran Riklis (104min, Israel/Germany/France, 2014)
Hebrew and Arabic with English Subtitles
Narrative
East Coast Premiere

First love, school bullies, British New Wave … and SCUD missiles. This bittersweet 80s coming-of-age drama from the director of The Syrian Bride and Lemon Tree adapts two autobiographical novels by popular Israeli-Arab writer Sayed Kashua. Eyad is a gifted Arab teenager who wins the chance to attend a prestigious Jewish boarding school. Isolated and lonely at first, he soon develops close friendships and begins fitting in. Soon however, heartbreak, personal tragedy and politics threaten to destroy their adolescent idyll. As Eyad moves into manhood, he makes impossible decisions about where he will stand—and who he will be—in a divided country.