Israel, 2014, 104 minutes
Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles • Director: Eran Riklis
Eyad, a Palestinian-Israeli teenager who wins a scholarship to an elite Jerusalem boarding school, is an outsider struggling to fit in with the Jewish-Israeli culture in the late 1980s. Through the school’s community service initiative, he befriends Jonathan, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, and is embraced by Jonathan’s mother as a member of the family. As war looms, Eyad discovers love and disappointment, and makes a life-changing decision that alters the course of his future. Sayed Kashua based the script on his debut novel.
University of Pennsylvania, and professional actor