By William Wolf

A BORROWED IDENTITY  Send This Review to a Friend

Israeli director Eran Riklis’s “A Borrowed Identity,” with a screenplay by Arab-Israeli author Sayed Kashua based on his two autobiographical novels, does its share of exposing what is depicted as the mistreatment of Arabs living in Israel, their resentment and the gulf between them and Jews. But unlike some of the blatant accusatory films dealing with such matters, “A Borrowed Identity” probes relationships against the existing background and explores how individuals are affected.

The youngster Eyad, played by Razi Gabareen, grows up in a Muslim home in Tira, Israel, with a father who has been an activist in fights for Arab rights. Ayed hears plenty of talk in the family against Israeli policies. He finds a newspaper clipping in which his father had once been arrested as a terrorist. At school, when the youngsters are asked what their fathers do, he naively says “terrorist.”

The grown-up Eyad role is taken over by Tawfeek Barhom and since Eyad is a bright, talented student, he gets the opportunity to go to a prestigious Jewish boarding school in Jerusalem, where he makes important liaisons. Bahrom’s performance results in Ayed earning our sympathy.

As part of a social project, he begins to assist Jonathan, played by Michael Moshonov, a boy afflicted with muscular dystrophy and growing progressively worse. They become fast friends, and step by step he is made to feel very at home in that household, thanks to the appreciation and warmth extended by Jonathan’s mother, Edna, portrayed with special effectiveness by Yael Abecassis.

On the romantic side, Eyad falls in love with the Jewish young woman student Naomi, nicely portrayed by Daniel Kitsis, who responds with her love. This Arab-Jewish relationship is a problem, of course. Naomi is has to withdraw from school when her family learns of her affair with an Israeli Arab.

In the process of the relationship, we are shown Naomi encountering the difficulties Eyad faces as a Arab. Their relationship comes under extreme stress and as for Eyad’s friend Jonathan, his condition deteriorates.

How all of this is worked out is rather bizarre—note the film’s title—but the screenplay strives to show the complications of being accepted and the lengths to which one may go in trying to achieve that goal. A Strand Releasing release. Reviewed June 26, 2015.

  

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