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Arab Labor – Season 1 Episode 4 “Kidnapping”

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 4: After Amjad and Meir interview the Arab Miss Israel, Amjad heads home while Meir stays back to take pictures. Riding back to the city alone, Meir believes he is being kidnapped by his Arab taxi driver and his cronies. The driver struggles to understand Meir’s pleas in Hebrew to spare his life, and thinks his erratic passenger needs to go to the bathroom. Meir calls on Amjad for help when his clueless driver “locks” him in an outhouse. Amjad and his father set out on a rescue mission to free Meir from his “kidnappers.”

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