Mark Reviews Movies: TEL AVIV ON FIRE

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 1, 2019

From the start, it's clear that Tel Aviv on Fire has no intention of taking the Israeli-Palestinian conflict too seriously. The story begins with a vignette of a Palestinian spy and another freedom fighter/terrorist (depending on whom one asks, as becomes a point of contention later in the film). The year is 1967, and in a few months, a border-defining war will erupt. These two characters conspire in melodramatic tones, above music that's just as overblown, in a Tel Aviv hotel room, which is lit with such softness that a person could fall asleep standing up amidst its warmth.

It's ridiculous, and that's when co-writer/director Sameh Zoabi, a Palestinian filmmaker who was born and raised in Israel, cuts to a shot beyond the walls of the hotel room. It isn't one. It's a set, with lights shining that romantic glow on the scenery and a whole crew watching the actors play the scene.

The moment establishes the story's central premise, which revolves around the production of a Palestinian soap opera that is broadcast throughout the region to Arabs and Israelis alike. It also informs us that Zoabi and co-screenwriter Dan Kleinman are lifting some kind of tonal and thematic veil. It's fine to laugh at this, because it isn't real. It'll be fine to laugh at what happens in the real world of the film, too, because it's also just a show—as ludicrous and overly complicated as the one on TV.

The actual story, unlike the fictional melodrama being produced by its main characters (unofficially, in certain cases), is a comedy, set in the present day, in which Salam (Kais Nashif), a Palestinian man who works on the show in Ramallah and lives in Jerusalem, blunders his way into a prestigious job on the popular soap opera, which shares a title with the film itself. The man is something of a loser, only getting his entry-level job on the show—as a gofer and Hebrew-language consultant—because his uncle Bassam (Nadim Sawalha) is its chief producer. Nobody expects much from Salam, and he, more or less, has come to accept that.

The show is uniquely popular in the Palestinian territories and Israel, where both sides of that long-standing conflict come together for every episode to witness the unfolding drama. The central focus is the Palestinian "Manal," who assumes the identity of a Jewish woman named "Rachel" and, in real life, is played by the French actress Tala (Lubna Azabal).

Enlisted by "Marwan" (Ashraf Farah), a Palestinian revolutionary, "Manal," in disguise as "Rachel," infiltrates the headquarters of the Israeli military as a secretary. Her job is to get close to "General Yehuda Edelman" (Yousef Sweid), gain his trust, and steal his plans for the approaching conflict. What keeps audience members coming back to the show, though, is the question of which man, if either, "Manal/'Rachel'" will choose to love.

While that tale unfolds on television screens throughout the region, Salam has to cross a security checkpoint every morning and every evening. One day, he's stopped and interrogated by Assi (Yaniv Biton), an Israeli Army captain, who knows of the show because his wife (played by Shifi Aloni) is obsessed with it. The captain only sees it as "anti-Zionist propaganda" and inaccurate in its depiction of the general.

In other words, Assi has a few notes for Salam, who claims to be a writer on the show to try to get on the captain's good side. When Salam presents some of the captain's ideas to his uncle, he's promoted to being an actual writer on the show. The only problem is that he has no clue what he's doing and keeps returning to Assi for new ideas for the story and characters.

The complications mount as Salam's deception grows deeper and as the show's more sympathetic portrayal of the fictional general, complete with a tragic back story and a sincere love for "Rachel," becomes front-page news. Zoabi plays all of this intentionally as farce, with Salam trying to impress an old crush named Mariam (Maisa Adb Elhadi), keeping Assi happy with genuine (and sometimes not-so-genuine) Palestinian hummus to continue picking his brain, and attempting to convince his uncle that a wedding between the Palestinian spy and the Israeli general would be a good idea. That last one is Assi's ultimate demand, naïvely believing that fictional harmony will be reflected in reality and get him out of his job.

Beneath the humor, though, there is a slightly more thoughtful side to the film. It's in the way Assi's demands become more specific and his threats become more severe (taking Salam's identification card so he has to see the captain in order to get home). It's in the debates between some idealistic view of how the story of the show should unfold and Bassam's belief that, despite its format, the show should reflect some kind of reality—akin to the one he experienced in the actual Six-Day War. It's in Salam's own story, having gone through a childhood deprived of some basic needs and, now, being deprived of certain rights because of his identity.

The less obvious aspect of the film's critique of the current climate, though, is far more subtle. Tel Aviv on Fire presents the eponymous soap opera as a unifying influence, although its popularity is in turning old and current conflicts into entertainment. By the film's third act, the big question for the characters is whether the show will end with one season or continue on with another, because its influence grows as people have and are given more reason to debate and argue. That sounds familiar.

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