Tel Aviv on Fire

Israel / Palestine, today. Salam, a charming 30-year-old Palestinian living in Jerusalem, works as a trainee on the Palestinian popular soap opera "Tel Aviv on Fire", produced in Ramallah. Every day, to reach the TV studios, Salam has to go through a rather difficult Israeli checkpoint. There he meets the commander of the checkpoint, Assi, whose wife is a big fan of the soap opera. In order to please him, Assi puts pressure on Salam to change the end of the show. Salam quickly realizes that Assi's ideas could be promoted to him as a screenwriter. Salam's creative career is suddenly boiling, until Assi and the soap opera producers and financiers disagree on how it should end. Stuck between an army colonel and Arab support, Salam can solve his problems with a final master stroke.

Critical Notes

"Wonderfully cast, Sameh Zoabi's zippy comedy takes clever basic ingredients and runs with them, affectionately lampooning stereotypical attitudes about Arabs and Jews and how each group supposedly demands to be depicted." - Lisa Nesselson, Screen International

Film Information

Director: Sameh Zoabi
Cast:: Kais Nashif, Lubna Azabal, Yaniv Biton 
Year: 2018
Runtime: 100 mins 
Country: Luxembourg, Belgium, Israel, France
Language: Arabic, Hebrew w/ EST
Distributor: Unobstructed View
Ratings: ON NR / BC NR / AB NR / SK NR / MB NR / QC NR / Maritmes NR

Screenings

* Represents an approximate date. Please consult local listings.