The West Bank in Song & Dance
West Bank Story - Ari Sandel - Short Film - 2005
by Yariv Nornberg
The Israeli-Palestinian
conflict won an Academy Award!
Director Ari Sandel orchestrated
an insightful and hysterical musical comedy
transplanting “West Side Story” into
the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria.
The film’s message, told through the
rivalry between Israeli and Palestinian falafel
stands in the West
Bank, is that coexistence is possible
if both people see their common humanity
and interest, and, in the best Hollywood
tradition, love can conquer all. This hopeful
vision told through 22 minutes of lively
and sometimes hilarious song and dance justifiably
won the Oscar for the best live action short
film.
“West Bank
Story” replaces the Anglo and Puerto
Rican love interests of the West Side with
Fatima, a beautiful Palestinian fast food
cashier, and David, an IDF soldier.
This unlikely couple falls in love amidst
the animosity of their clans, which is represented
by dueling falafel stands, the Palestinian “Hummus
Hut” and the Jewish “Kosher King.”
Tensions grow when the
Kosher King's new pastry machine juts onto
Hummus Hut property. The Palestinians ruin
the machine and the Israelis respond by saying
they will build a wall , prompting the Hummus
Hut owner to say derisively, “Jews
in construction?” and then burst into
laughter.
The Jews go ahead and build a wall between the two
eating establishments, but it does not separate Fatima
and David.
In the director’s
utopian vision, the Palestinian Muslim and
Israeli Jew can literally and figuratively
break down the wall dividing their peoples,
so when a chain of events leads to the destruction
of both restaurants the lovers bring everyone
together to work cooperatively to satisfy
their peoples’ demand
for falafel.
By showing sensitivity to the touchiness
of the topic, the filmmaker succeeded in
poking fun at both sides without seeming
malicious or biased. One might hope that
through laughter the film can be a constructive
tool to lead us away from anger, but probably
not yet from despair. David and Fatima’s
conclusion at the end of the film that the
only place where they can be free to fulfill
their love is Beverly Hills reminds us that
the Californian filmmaker understands that
his cinematic fantasy is far from the realities
of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The real West Bank story requires more
than a song and a dance to bring about a
happy ending.
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