A Borrowed Identity

“Sometimes I forget you’re an Arab,” says Yonatan, a Jewish Israeli teen with muscular dystrophy, to his best friend Eyad. “Yeah, me too,” Eyad responds. For the past two years, Eyad has been the sole Arab student at a highly competitive boarding school in Jerusalem. Having grown up in a predominantly Arab village in Israel, Eyad had a difficult time acclimating to the school. But thanks to Yonatan, whom Eyad met through a service program, and Naomi, Eyad’s Jewish girlfriend, Eyad’s experiences in Jerusalem haven’t been completely miserable. Still, he cannot escape the stigma associated with his ethnicity among the majority of Jewish Israelis. Naomi’s parents, for instance, would admittedly rather she get cancer than date an Arab. Not yet ready to reject his past entirely, Eyad can’t help but fantasize about having A BORROWED IDENTITY. Set in the ten years following the 1982 Lebanon War, Eran Riklis’s coming-of-age drama – based on Sayed Kashua’s semi-autobiographical book Dancing Arabs – powerfully depicts how systemic prejudice impacts an individual’s sense of self. (In Arabic and Hebrew with subtitles) – E.B.