BT-03. A Borrowed Identity, based on the novel Dancing Arabs

Israel, Feature Film, 2014, 105 min

?Anyone who sees the film?Jew, Arab or someone from outside Israel completely? will be able to understand far more about the reality here than they could learn from any article or editorial.? ? Jerusalem Post

Eyad, a brilliant Palestinian teen, is hassled constantly by Israeli soldiers in his village in the ?80s, but he escapes by getting a scholarship to the most prestigious boarding school in Jerusalem. The only Arab, he is teased about his accent and clothes, but his prodigious classroom skills earn respect. And while tutoring hard-partying wheelchair-bound Jonathon, Eyad finally learns how to tease back. Working at his part-time job dishwashing in a restaurant, he decides he would make a great waiter because he could just memorize every order. ?Arabs in the kitchen,? he is told, ?Jews in the front.? He’s now afraid that, no matter what his skills, he will always belong to the lowest caste of society. So he decides to pass for Jewish. (?Dancing Arabs? is a semi-autobiographical novel, and the real ?Eyad? is now one of the Middle East’s most popular authors.) Subtitled.