DIRECTOR/SCREENPLAY: ​Maysaloun Hamoud
PRODUCER: Shlomi Elkabetz
PHOTOGRAPHY: Itay Gross
EDITORS: Nili Feller, Lev Goltser
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Hagar Brotman
COSTUME DESIGNER: Li Alembik
MUSIC: M.G. Saad
WITH: Mouna Hawa (Leila Bakhr), Sana Jammelieh (Salma), Shaden Kanboura (Nour), Mahmud Shalaby (Ziad Hamdi)

FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Toronto International Film Festival 2016 (,NETPAC Award), Haifa International Film Festival 2016 (Best Debut Feature Film), Istanbul International Film Festival 2017 (FIPRESCI Prize), San Sebastián International Film Festival 2016 (Sebastiane Award Best Film)

REVIEWS

"While films and TV series about the trials and tribulations of female friends living, loving, and working in a big city may be fairly common (“Sex and the City” and “Girls” to name a couple), Arab-Israeli writer-director Maysaloun Hamoud refreshes the genre’s tropes with her energetic feature debut “In Between.” What makes this spiky dramedy so compelling are the Palestinian-Israeli protagonists, whose split lives have rarely been depicted on screen. These strong, modern, sexually active women, living independently in the center of Tel Aviv, away from their families and the weight of tradition, struggle to be true to themselves when confronting the expectations of others. 

Equally fluent in Arabic and Hebrew, and dressing in a way that makes them completely indistinguishable from their Jewish contemporaries, ultra-chic lawyer Layla (seductively played by the striking Mouna Hawa) and her flat-mate, lesbian disc jockey Salma (Sana Jammelieh), are part of a Palestinian cultural underground scene. They party until the wee hours at clubs with kick-ass music and partake of drink and drugs with a set of bohemian friends. Salma adopts a more submissive persona when dutifully visiting her conservative Christian family, whose members all believe that she is a music teacher and continue to invite potential suitors over for dinner. On the other hand, realist Layla, who refuses to compromise her lifestyle and remains separate from her family, neatly nixes the romantic attentions of a Jewish attorney, saying, “let’s keep our flirtation fun.”

When good Muslim girl Nour (Shaden Kanboura), a hijabi graduate student from a small village, comes to occupy the third bedroom in Layla and Salma’s apartment, the stage would seem to be set for confrontation, but Hamoud defies expectations by showing the developing sisterhood between all the roommates. Not only do they have in common the uneasy status of being Arab-Israelis (and thus “other”) in a predominantly Jewish society, but they share the problem of finding the right, supportive, understanding romantic partner.

- Alissa Simon, Variety

"After watching Maysaloun Hamoud’s sparkling, taboo-breaking first feature In Between (Bar Bahar), audiences will have to seriously update their ideas about the lifestyle of Palestinian women in Israel. "

- Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter

FILM SOCIETY SCREENING

Whanganui
Monday, 9 March, 7:00pm

Public screening: Non-members welcome by donation (suggested $10 per adult)
Screening courtesy of Vendetta Films
Want to see this film?  Ask your local Film Society to add to their 2021 programme.