Le fils de l'autre / The other son

As usual I'm preparing a review for this year's edition of FIC Xixón, but this exceptional film deserves its own separate review. Le fils de l'autre (The other son) by Lorraine Levi is a profoundly human story, a touching and questioning work dealing with such serious topics as our feeling of identity and belonging to a family, a religion, an ethnic group...

Imagine you're an 18 years Israeli guy that suddenly finds out (along with his family) that due to a mistake in the hospital where he was born he got shifted with a Palestinian Arab newborn. This would be shocking enough in any other society, but when in happens in a fucked up place where both families are supposed to hate each other (the invaders that thew us away from our land vs the ones that send suicide bombers to our cafes) it turns into an astonishing exercise of re-evaluation of oneself and everything around. The idea is brilliant, as it is the way it rolls out to show us the lives and the perceptions of "the other" on both sides of the Wall. The selection of the phenotypes of the characters is excellent, tearing apart any ideas of "racial differentiation" between both peoples. The Israeli father (an Israel army colonel) looks almost like an Arab (dark eyes and dark skinned, not the kind of Ashkenazim Jew which ancestors intermixed with central Europeans and that now would look more like a German than like someone with roots in the Middle East), while the Palestinian father is a clear eyed Arab. The film is also pretty good in showing the revolting racist ideal that in a way seems to underlie Judaism (sort of Jus sanguinis applied to ethnicity and religion). The Israeli guy, though having been brought up as a Jew (circumcised, has studied the Torah in depth...) for 18 years, is not a Jew now, cause he has no "Jew blood", and he will have to go through a complicated process of conversion... On the other side, his Palestinian counterpart is now a Jew, that should have all the rights that it involves in the state of Israel. This idea of a religion "for the chosen ones" should be in stark contrast with Islam, that seems like a religion for everyone (apparently this sounds pretty good, but also think than that's why radical Muslims try to force their insane beliefs upon everyone). This said, I'm quite a bit surprised with the reaction of the brother of the Palestinian guy, who at first vehemently rejects him as "one of the others" (I guess Islam says that if he has grown up as a Muslim, he should be considered a Muslim, regardless of his parents' beliefs).

The reactions of the different members of both families are really instructive:
Both mothers react likewise, though deeply in pain, they quickly seem to accept the situation, on the one side, now they have a new son to worry about and to feel proud of, on the other side, nothing has changed with regards to the other son: genes or 9 months in your womb are nothing when compared to 18 years of shared love. From the first moment a feeling of confidence springs up and will help them to assimilate and deal with this new situation.
For both parents it's a bit more difficult, a soldier defending Israel from "the others" versus an engineer that has to work as a mechanic cause there are no engineering jobs in the West Bank because of "the others"... 2 men for which the conflict has had more personal implications, their whole lives, their professions... have been shaped by these borders. First they get engaged in a discussion about stolen lands and suicide bombers... then the gap seems to narrow, but it's still very difficult to find words to share.
I love the attitude of the 2 little girls in both families, these young creatures still not poisoned by this never ending conflict react happily saying "now I have a new brother" and playing together with their barbies.
As for the main characters of this drama, after the initial deep shock, both guys strive to handle this crazy situation and manage to establish a strong relation, not only between them but also with their new families (and even with their new cultures).

I could keep writing paragraphs praising this masterpiece for a good while, but I think it's enough to prompt you to watch it at the first chance you get