When Pigs Have Wings

The fishermen of Gaza aren't allowed to sail to the high seas and therefore hardly land anything. Especially Jafaar, a likable chap, who returns to port with two sardines (and two single sandals), when his colleagues at least catch something they can sell on the market. Jafaar is like Chaplin's Little Tramp, a likable loser who never stops trying and never loses hope. Then, one day, he lands a big catch: a living pig! However, as a Muslim he can't eat it himself, he fails to sell it to a UN official (the only Christian he knows), and the Jews won't buy it either. Then he finds a Russian girl in a Jewish settlement (in this movie, there are still Jewish settlements in Gaza) who is at least willing to enter into a limited business agreement with Jafaar ...

There is a veritable industry churning out movies about the Middle East conflict. The stories are usually modern fairy tales, probably in order to address the absurd reality without hurting anyone, and all characters are charming and full of human weaknesses. Israeli soldiers are usually gruff on the outside (the movie is critical!), but when you get to know them they're just ordinary chaps who watch Telenovelas just like everybody else (the movie is balanced and by no means antisemitic!).

I thought that the plot was too thin to sustain a 90-minute film. The actors were excellent and made the most out of it, but overall I didn't learn anything new about the Israeli-Palestinian-conflict -- or in fact, anything at all. The sweltering conflict would warrant a movie which gives us a new perspective even at the cost of balance, rather than putting us to bed with a fairy tale on the strength of human nature.