Palestinian drama examines Israeli society

When Rami (Toufic Danial), one of the protagonists of Scandar Copti's cleverly structured drama Happy Holidaysdiscovers that his girlfriend Shirley (Shani Dahari) is pregnant, panic sets in. He is Palestinian and she is Israeli. He fears the reality of raising a child in a country where not even their relationship can be made public. Rami asks Shirley to consider an abortion, and she refuses.

Their relationship contains the first of several interconnected tensions observed in Happy Holidayspremiered at the Venice Film Festival in the Orizonti section. The film follows Rami, Shirley and members of both their families as they navigate life in Israel. Copti, a Palestinian filmmaker who co-directed the Oscar-nominated film Ajami with Israeli filmmaker Yaron Shani, focuses on the subtle dynamics at play when people live in a highly militarized and divided nation. How do interpersonal connections echo or challenge the will of the state? How can national forces reshape, or even fracture, relationships? And how do women suffer from what are often patriarchal limitations?

Copti wraps these cerebral questions in the gripping twists of a high-stakes drama. The interconnected structure sets the stage for a gripping mystery that attentive viewers will be eager to solve. Happy Holidays formally begins with Rami and Shirley, but each chapter (the film is divided into four), reveals new complications and challenges faced by their families. Copti draws out committed performances from its cast of non-professional actors, who give the film substance with their sober portrayals of Israeli Jews and mostly Palestinian Christians grappling with existential questions. For these reasons, if the film gets a U.S. release, it will likely find its audience.

Rami and Shirley can't agree on what to do with the baby, which begins to strain their relationship. Anonymous threats eventually tear them apart. Rami thinks Shirley's family is behind the vague warnings he's been receiving, while Shirley believes Rami has sent hitmen to coerce her. The true source of the warnings is one of the threads of the mystery in Happy Holidayswhich does a good job of showing the dangerous reality of Rami and Shirley's union. A more detailed backstory on how the couple began dating would have been welcome, especially since a significant portion of the film relies on the taboo nature of their relationship.

While Rami deals with the fallout from his love life, his sister Fifi (Manar Shehab) deals with her own secrets. After a night out, she gets into a car accident (depicted in the opening scene) that lands her in the hospital. The emergency room visit causes repercussions in her family, some of whose members discover something about Fifi's sexual history that she would rather keep hidden. Copti, who also wrote the screenplay, uses Fifi's story to reveal the larger issues addressed here. Women in Happy Holidays are often the ones most restricted by society. Fifi's failed negotiations with a hospital's medical staff to keep her files private become a crucial part of the narrative engine.

Other significant characters include Fifi’s lover, Walid (Raed Burbara), whose interest in Fifi and seriousness in their courtship seem to hinge on a misguided and vague notion of purity. There’s also Fifi’s mother, Hanah (Walaa Aoun), who is planning a wedding for Fifi’s sister, Leila (Sophie Awaada), in the midst of the family’s financial crisis. (A previous story reveals how shady accounting has plunged this upper-middle-class family into precariousness.) Happy Holidays also investigates Shirley's family, starting with her sister Miri (Merav Mamorsky). As she tries to influence Shirley's decisions regarding the pregnancy, Miri is confronted with her daughter's sudden depression.

As Copti explores these family issues, he observes daily life in Haifa, where the film is set. Scenes of Fifi at her part-time job as an elementary school teacher's assistant reveal how Israeli education reinforces anti-Arab sentiments and the need for a powerful military. Children write notes to soldiers and are taught that their safety depends on this omnipresent armed force. These ideas calcify into a national identity that is then used to create further division. Differences become a tool to stoke fear. Copti shows all of these sequences, including moments of ethical reckoning, with a sincere and candid gaze. Through his hyperlinked stories, Happy Holidays offers a tangible example of interdependence, a reminder that no one is free until all are free.