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Arab Labor – Season 1 Episode 2: “The Sheep”

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 2:  Amjad moves from the news desk to the magazine. The editor asks him for a colorful, sexy piece. Amjad is not sure what to write and deliberates over what to do, until he hears from his father about a very special sheep who understands what the soldiers say. Amjad makes up an interview with the sheep, and becomes a hot item on all of the local and international television networks. As he becomes famous for a false article, can he get himself out of this bind?

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