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Arab Labor – Season 1 Episode 1 “The Car”

Directed by: Shai Kapon
24 Minutes, 2007, Comedy; Drama

Created by Sayed Kashua, a 32-year-old Israeli-born Palestinian journalist, Arab Labor (translated from the Hebrew “Avoda Aravit” which colloquially implies second-rate work) focuses on Amjad, a Palestinian journalist and Israeli citizen in search of his identity as he seeks high status in the society into which he was born but where his car is searched everyday when he drives from his neighborhood to his job at a newspaper in Jerusalem.

Episode 1: Amjad is stopped regularly on the road for a security check by police and does not understand why, because he thinks he looks like an average Israeli. Meir tells him that it is because the Subaru he drives is considered an Arab car. Amjad decides to trade in his Subaru and gets into trouble with the owners of the chop shop. Meanwhile, Amjad the journalist has to explain in the media why Arabs are involved in more traffic accidents.

For more information visit the Israel Film Center

 

Credits

Director: Shai Kapon

Cast: Norman Issa

Cast: Marlano Idelman

Cast: Clara Khoury

Cast: Mira Awad

Written by: Sayed Kashua

Distributor: Kino Lorber

Awards

"Whoever said the Arab-Israeli conflict couldn't be funny? The first primetime Israeli skein about an Arab family is a hit with Israeli auds. "Avoda Aravit" (Arab Labor) follows the comic exploits of an Israeli Arab journo as he deals with a demanding boss and even more taxing family."

-Ali Jaafar, 

Variety 

"Milestone show is the first sitcom featuring mainly Arab characters speaking Arabic on prime time."

-Anat Rosenberg,

 The Jerusalem Post

"Mr. Kashua has managed to barge through cultural barriers and bring an Arab point of view — mostly expressed in colloquial Arabic — into the mainstream of Israeli entertainment." 

-The New York Times