Strangers

During the 2006 World Cup in Berlin, an Israeli and a Palestinian swap bags by accident in a metro station. To return them they have to meet. Meanwhile war breaks out in Lebanon, and the two men, in the same city, watching the same news, try to work out what to say to each other. The film is not interested in a message of peace. It is interested in how hard talking is: both want to be friends, and every bulletin puts another sentence between them. It offers no easy reconciliation and does not tie off its ending. The form is small: Berlin streets, bars, cheap hotels, handheld camera. The dialogue moves between English, Hebrew and Arabic. Guy Nattiv and Erez Tadmor directed. The film grew out of a short they had made earlier, and the feature screened at Sundance. Part of it was shot inside real World Cup crowds, quickly and without permits, which explains its documentary texture. Liron Levo plays the Israeli and Lubna Azabal the Palestinian woman. Who it is for: viewers who like small-scale drama with a political background. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a clear conclusion. The film ends deliberately unresolved and some scenes still show the marks of having been expanded from a short.