A different view of life in Israel is entertainingly offered in “In Between,” a film by a Palestinian-Israeli female writer-director, Maysaloun Hamoud, who caused a stir with her take on three Palestinian women roommates. She reportedly received death threats for her candid zeroing on in on their lives with no holds barred.
The three women sharing living quarters are Laila, played by Mouna Hawa), a criminal lawyer who is fun-loving and a habitué of the Tel Aviv club scene; Salma, portrayed by Sana Jammelieh, who aspires to be a disc jockey while earning a living as a bartender, and Nur, enacted by Shaden Kanboura, who is a rather shy Muslim religious student.
The film follows the lives of all three. Laila has a boyfriend who on the surface accepts her lifestyle. Salma falls in love with a woman. Nur is in the most difficult situation. Her financé Wissam, portrayed by Henry Andrawes, is upset with her roommates, who, he believes, are leading Nur astray from Muslim orthodoxy and expected wifely duties with their free-wheeling lifestyle.
In a way, Nur’s situation is the most interesting. Her boyfriend is abusive with his demands that she move and follow strict Muslim rules. He is controlling and ultimately violent, and she has to summon the courage to decide for herself who she should really be and what kind of a life she wants to lead.
Although the film at times seems cluttered, it basically is a fascinating study of the three women, clearly from the point of view of a woman writer and director. Hamoud dares to look at each of her central characters in the framework of existing conditions and biases.
How they navigate the Tel Aviv scene and their personal relationships make for a good story, often with humor as well as with dramatic intensity, and Hamoud enables us to become involved with her characters.
“In Between” is clearly a film that’s different and with a unique perspective. The acting is uniformly good, whether by the three women or those in their lives. A Film Movement release. Reviewed January 5, 2018.