''Ana Arabia'' ("''I Am Arab''") is a 2013 French-Israeli

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by

Amos Gitai Amos Gitai () is an artist and an Israelis, Israeli filmmaker, born 11 October 1950 in Haifa, Israel. Gitai's work was presented in several major retrospectives in Pompidou Center in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Lincoln Center for ...

. It was entered into the main competition at the

70th Venice International Film Festival The 70th annual Venice International Film Festival, was held from 28 August to 7 September 2013, at Venice Lido in Italy. Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci was the jury president for the main competition. He was previously the presiden ...

. It consists of a single

long take In filmmaking, a long take (also called a continuous take, continuous shot, or oner) is Shot (filmmaking), shot with a duration much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general. Significant camera mov ...

.E. Nina Rothe. (June 9, 2013)
Best of Venice: Amos Gitai's Ana Arabia

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

Synopsis

The story follows seven characters living in a small enclave between

Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

and

Bat-Yam Bat Yam ( ) is a city on Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast, on the Central Coastal Plain just south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area and the Tel Aviv District. In , it had a population of . History British Mandate Bat ...

, the last area not yet transformed into real estate property. In a small orchard with several structures used for living and as a makeshift garage, a small community lives at their own laid-back pace, different from that of the surrounding city. A young journalist named Yael (

Yuval Scharf Yuval Scharf (; born 4 June 1985) is an Israeli film, television and theatre actress, and model. Early life Scharf was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a family of Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish (History of the Jews in Poland, Polish-Jewish) backg ...

) arrives to investigate a mysterious story surrounding the death of the family matriarch, Anna, who was born in a concentration camp in Poland and later married Yusuf after arriving in Israel. The characters Yael meets share their lives, dreams, hopes, romances, passions, and disappointments. Through a tapestry of memory fragments, the film presents a journey between the characters' present and their past traumas, revealing the development of their intimate relationships against the backdrop of historical events and horrors.

Cast

: Yael *

Yussuf Abu-Warda Yussuf Abu-Warda (, ; born 19 August 1953 in Jish) is an Arab-Israeli actor. A leading actor from 1999 he was head of Al-Midan Theater in Haifa. In October 2018, he received a life achievement award from the Union of Israeli Performing Artists. ...

: Yussuf *

Sarah Adler Sarah Adler (; born 1978) is a French and Israeli actress with dual citizenship. Career Adler is now best known for her performances in the 2017 Israeli films ''Foxtrot'' and '' The Cakemaker''; earlier in her career her notable films included ' ...

: Miriam *

Asi Levi Osnat "Asi" Levi (; born September 28, 1969) is an Israeli Film Academy Award winning actress. Career Levi attended and graduated the Yoram Loewenstein Performing Arts Studio in southern Tel Aviv. Levi's early appearances include films such as ...

: Sarah *

Uri Gavriel Uri Gavriel () is an Israeli theater, film and television actor. Winner of the Ophir Award and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2005 as Best Actor in film ''What a Wonderful Place''. In 2018, he appeared as Philip the Apostle in Helen ...

: Hassan * Norman Issa: Norman

References

External links

* 2013 drama films 2013 films Films directed by Amos Gitai French drama films Israeli drama films One-shot films 2010s French films {{2010s-Israel-film-stub