We need to learn to listen to each other’s pain and hope. Understanding and empathy are the cornerstones of lasting peace.
~Amos Oz
The Middle East Film Festival
I'm going to have a go here at talking about some of the Iranian films that I've watched over the last month or two, which are fewer in number than I would have liked. Because I'm rushing into writing this post, somehow driven into it by the madness of war, I can't say that I'm reaching here for a thematic arc, in the same way as I did for instance in my last post. I'm just writing out of urgent need to say something.
I got asked a simple question: 'Are there any Romeo & Juliet stories in Israeli and Palestinian/Arab cinema?' It's a question that reveals what we want cinema to give us - hope, reconciliation, the possibility that love can transcend politics. The answer, unfortunately, is more complicated and sadder than one might hope.
Given the title of the film, it's a funny (happy or otherwise, not sure!) coincidence, that I'm writing this post on November 5th 2025, a date familiar enough to readers in the United Kingdom. Many Britons now seem to have no idea any more of the history, mind, and it's a date which needs a quick search on Wikipedia for most of those not native to these islands. There was zero intention of the two things would overlap. The only reason for writing now is a conversation about this film which took place only two days ago.
Imagine that the chairman of your Neighbourhood Watch is a DJ and mixtape composer with an interest in Tibetan mysticism, who smokes weed and carries a baseball bat around the hood. In characterisations of Israel which break it down into something more complex and less monolithic than 'the Zionist Entity', there are multiple communities which need to be understood if we have any serious intention of healing the gaping wounds of the Middle East.
I need to remind myself that I'm not trying to write my PhD thesis here. These are just emotional reactions to films that react to and reflect on anything that ails the Middle East (occasionally with some humour, thankfully). Let us begin with a love story from the place where the pain is currently most strongly felt (and of course *has been felt* for a long time