#7 - DANCING ARABS by Eran Riklis (Israel/Germany/France)
DANCING ARABS (aka A BORROWED IDENTITY) is an interesting drama by ERAN RIKLIS that subtly plays with the audience's perception. It is the story of a young Palestinian whose precocious intelligence inspires his politically active father to finance his education in the Jewish community. Once there, through friendships and love, he is lured to construct an alter ego for himself and gradually buy into his new cultural environment.
DANCING ARABS is driven by a fluid and relentless pace, conveyed by the high production values that opt of crane shots and tracking shots instead of the usual immediacy of handheld camerawork that shapes other films of the kind. This in turn constructs a more mysterious type of tension, and makes the leading character of the young man Eyad - a performance by TAWFEEK BARHOM who a times seems to be as seductive as TERENCE STAMP in PASOLINI's TEOREMA - all the more ambiguous.
Ultimately, the film reveals a little carelessness in its second part with a number of frustrating plot holes, perhaps originating from some trouble by screenwriter KASHUA, unable to edit them out of the draft of his own adaptation from his novel. Despite this, it remains a powerful and different examination of its socio-political environment, particularly within the Israeli Palestinian conflict, which has inspired many films to the point of them lacking originality and a characteristic type of impact.