Ajami

Jewish Film Series- Ajami Saturday, March 12, 2011 | 08:00 PM to 10:00 PM Jewish Film Series JOIN US for Columbia Jewish Congregation’s (CJC’s) Nineteenth Season of Movies Ticket SALES WILL BEGIN AND DOORS WILL OPEN AT 7:30 Website: columbiajewish./filmseries. Four evenings of thought-provoking, varied, entertaining films, including refreshments & optional discussion group Showings: Saturdays, 8:00 PM, Rm. 200, The Meeting House in Oakland Mills, Columbia, MD $30 for 4-film series, $24 for 3-film series, $17 for 2-film series. ($9.00 for single ticket: Sold at Door Only)

March 12, 2011 Ajami – 2009 – Israel – Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles – 120 min. Oscar nomination for best foreign film and winner of many awards including Israel Film Academy, Boulder and Ghent International Film Festivals. “ Ajami takes its name from a rough neighborhood in Jaffa, a mostly Arab city just south of Tel Aviv. This particular urban conflict zone bears a definite kinship to mean streets we know very well in movies and television. Crime is endemic, bonds of family and friendship can be both sustaining and fatal, and the urge to escape is no match for the gravitational pull of the place itself. The population includes innocent imperiled children, restless young guys in love with beautiful, unattainable women, honorable thieves, dirty cops, and powerful men who dwell on both sides of the law. How exactly these people will cross paths with a policeman named Dondo is one of the mysteries that holds us in a state of dread through much of the movie. But though it is partly an underworld crime story, Ajami uses the genre as a way of exploring the conditions in which its characters live as well as their psychological complexities.” (New York Times)