benbree Wow! This is an excellent movie and does a great job of demonstrating love through all sorts of challenges. I really enjoyed the performance by Ronit Elkabetz as I have seen her in "The Band's Visit". It was fun to watch. There was also a great performance by Dana Ivgy, who portrayed Mali Wolf. She appeared so innocent and believable as the daughter who falls for a Palestinian worker and decides to keep it a secret from her family - even after becoming pregnant.While I have no idea if it represented the relationships between Jews and Palestines, I really hope that these type of relationships happen each and every day in their world. There is a chance for peace!!

Seemp deHond For once let's just separate the politics from the movie reviews for once when reviewing titles from anywhere in the middle east or war zones. This is a typical love story as they are made all over the world and.... boy is it worth watching.When the spoiled and jealous son of Reuvens body shop/garage provokes one of the mechanics Toufik one time to many all lives involved are forced to change. Toufik and the daughter of the owner Mali have their own secrets and over time things can no longer be hidden.It's a solid love story, drama. Well acted, well done. No big political issues or statements here. Just a very solid drama, well told, well acted with likable characters. Thats good enough already without political statement.

bdsaustin Israel is receiving a storm of criticism these days for its merciless treatment of Palestinians under occupation. Often overlooked are the Palestinians who live on the Israeli side of the apartheid wall, the Arab-Israelis of Palestinian descent. Amidst this storm of criticism arrives the movie Jaffa. What Jaffa does for both Jews and Arabs in Israel is portray them as human. Palestinians are not cast as terrorists or as suppressed peasants. Jews are not cast as brainy but thrifty business moguls.Instead the moviegoer gets to look into the lives of these two groups of people and judge for themselves. Jaffa does not, however, show the true nasty side of Israel; it ignores the fact that tens of miles away, Palestinians are being completely deprived of their basic human rights, squeezed together behind a cruel apartheid wall by Israel.Is Israel even ready for a movie like Jaffa? I will argue that yes, it is time for Israelis to accept Palestinians, as people deserving of equal rights in a society that has so long denied them that. Thank you, Keron Yedaya, for what the world hopes is just the first of many Israeli made movies to come that give fair treatment to Arab-Israelis of Palestinian descent.

cl777 Jaffa, an Israeli film whose title refers to a part of Tel Aviv, is an excellent and moving drama. I wish movies like this got more press and had more fame. The story is sad, realistic and compelling.The movie begins in the family owned garage of an Israeli family, where father, son Meir, and daughter Mali, work alongside a young Palestinian named Toufik. Meir is not the model son- rebellious, angry, ungrateful and disrespectful towards his parents and everybody else, he steals the attention from his quiet younger sister. No one suspects that she is having a love affair with Toufik and that they are secretly planning on getting married.Religious and other tensions start building between the two young men, Meir and Toufik, and the outcome is shocking and devastating. Mali makes an extremely difficult sacrifice, depriving herself of a normal life by keeping hidden a truth which only she knows.All of the actors are magnificent. The father is particularly memorable, always kind, trying at times to be a little bit stern, understanding of everyone throughout the film until his final, harsh condemnation. The ending is extremely powerful- completely unexpected and expected at the same time. Mali finally makes a choice for herself and we are left hoping that her life will be a happy one.This film brought me to tears on several occasions. I watched it without Fabio as I wasn't sure what to expect and now highly recommend it to him and all of my readers.My rating: 9/10 Please visit http://paulinasmovies.blogspot.com and become a follower to read more reviews!