Serious issues surface in charming satire
“Tel Aviv on Fire,” a delightfully satiric take on the IsraeliPalestinian quagmire, revolves around a thirdrate soap opera and a border checkpoint where creativity — and helpings of hummus — trump ethnic conflict. It’s a wellacted movie with both a funny bone and a sense of humanity.
The unlikely hero is the underachieving Salam (Kais Nashif, pitch perfect), a Palestinian who serves as a gofer for the trashy soap opera only because his uncle is a bigwig on the production. A resident of Israel, Salam commutes to the West Bank filming location to make sure that the Hebrew dialogue for the Arab show, set during the SixDay War of 1967, makes a modicum of sense.
Salam’s line suggestions during the filming are awkward, but his lanky figure catches the eye of soap star Tala (Lubna Azabal, hilarious), the reigning diva of Arab television. In no time at all, Salam is appointed as the head writer, but there is a problem: He has barely held a job, let alone written a word of a teleplay.
After an amusing security mixup during his daily trek to the border, Salam finds a lifeline in Israeli commander Assi (Yaniv Biton), who soon helps the befuddled Salam come up with some juicy lines for his script. Though Assi’s suggestions tilt way too Zionist for a Palestinian show, the commander’s penchant for creative drama rescues Salam — and makes him a rockstar writer on the set.
Needless to say, this situation creates a host of complications for Salam, and even though the ensuing mayhem occasionally threatens the suspension of our disbelief, “Tel Aviv on Fire” remains charming throughout. Director Sameh Zoabi relies on the old adage that we have more in common than not, but it’s a lesson that bears repeating — particularly when laughs come with it.