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Short Film Has Fairytale Ending with an Oscar Win
by Tom Tugend
- "My intention was to make a movie that Israelis and Jews would watch and find themselves liking the Arab characters, and that Arabs would watch and like the Israeli characters," Ari Sandel said backstage at the Oscar ceremony.
- "Is the film is going to change the world or do anything else? Probably not. But, you know, if you can change just a few minds - I get e-mails from all over the world, from Israelis and Arabs, talking about how much the movie meant to them. That's hopeful because otherwise there is such a sea of negativity out there."
- At the Dubai Film Festival the post-film question-and-answer session started badly. One Arab rose to protest that the film failed to portray the suffering of the Palestinian people, and half the audience applauded.
- Finally a woman stood up, identified herself as a refugee from Gaza, said she loved the movie and asked how she could get a copy for her friends and relatives. With such a Palestinian imprimatur on the record, the audience turned friendly and the evening was deemed a success. (JTA/Australian Jewish News)
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The Oscars and the Palestinians
by Debbie Schlussel
- "West Bank Story" reduces unprovoked Islamic terrorism against innocent, mostly Jewish civilians to a Jets versus Sharks feud, solved with dancing, singing, and hummus. If only it were that simple.
- Apparently, filmmaker Ari Sandel hasn't been paying attention to what really goes on in falafel shops-and behind Israel's green line, not just the West Bank.
- Last year, on Mother's Day, American teenager Daniel Wultz died from massive internal injuries he suffered while eating at Mayor's Falafel restaurant in Tel Aviv. He and his father, Tuly Wultz, were having lunch during a Passover visit to Israel. The Wultzes were severely injured after Palestinian Sami Salim Ahmed entered the restaurant, pretending to be a falafel customer. He detonated a homicide bomb.
- This is illustrative of what's really happening in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It's not a moral equivalency musical, where both sides are equal.
- That this 20-minute movie boils it down to both sides fighting for control of the falafel industry is not just silly, callous, and obtuse, it's worse - an abomination of the many living and dead who were maimed, many fatally, by the actions of these joyous people shown dancing over falafel. (FrontPage Magazine)
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