Ajami 2009

Michael Phillips, At the Movies: Aside from its honesty, I just think it's a really gripping narrative. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: An urgent, immediate, jarring-but-fluid, multicharacter portrayal of Arab life in an Israel ghetto. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: A compelling drama about prejudice and folly. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: The fact that these two Israelis from opposite camps worked together to make this movie is as important as the movie itself. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Ajami keeps asking: When do people cross the line? And when does pulling the trigger become a viable option? Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Good intentions are one thing, of course, and good writing and filmmaking another. Ajami is lucky to have all three. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It has a complex, elliptical structure that uses unconventional filming techniques to tell a bleak and fatalistic story conveyed with an unnerving sense of verisimilitude. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: Shani and Copti (who costars as a hipster druggie) elicit moving performances from their nonprofessional actors, who ground the somewhat breathless action in a streetwise realism. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Like an Israeli Amores Perros crossed with City of God. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Don't worry if you miss some details; this is the kind of movie that rewards a second viewing. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The complexity might require a second viewing, but there is compensation in the realistic acting by a cast of non-pros and the eye-grabbing, hand-held lensing by Boaz Yehonatan Yacov. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Ajami brings its audience into a world where the cultural conflict is fierce, emotions run high, yet the hopeful vision of peaceful coexistence shines through the cracks. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The specifics of the plot in Ajami aren't as important as the impact of many sad moments that build up one after another. Hatred is like the weather. You don't agree with the rain but still you get wet. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's a film that rewards close attention, involving disparate characters whose lives intersect over the course of several chapters. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Any given half-hour of the film has dramatic impact; at two hours, it's a power punch to the gut. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's an admirably even-handed portrait of life in an occupied ghetto that is bounded by checkpoints. Everyone we meet is a more or less honorably motivated victim of circumstance. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The performances are searingly intense, all delivered by non-professionals cast to type and extemporizing within the parameters of the script. They take the play out of acting, and the effect is unvarnished realism. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The combustible movie has had a strangely unifying effect on audiences worldwide; it deserves to find traction where it counts. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: This is vividly challenging, utterly inclusive and heartfelt cinema. It's not only gripping to watch, but it'll open your eyes to the intractable human conundrums behind the blood-stained headlines. Read more

Jay Weissberg, Variety: Rarely has the tinderbox nature of the Middle East been so accurately lensed, on such an intimate scale, as in Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani's powerful Ajami. Read more

Ella Taylor, Village Voice: Untidy, despairing, oddly exhilarating. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: While its themes of revenge, mutual resentment and grim fatalism offer little hope for a ready solutions, the movie itself testifies to the power of creative collaboration in finding common ground. Read more