''In Between'' ( ar, بَر بَحَر, translit. ''Bar Bahar''; he, לא פה, לא שם) is a 2016 Israeli-French film directed by Maysaloun Hamoud, about three Israeli women of Palestinian heritage sharing a flat in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

Plot

The film depicts three young Israeli-Arab women living in liberal Tel Aviv, their struggles with the rule-bound Arab world and the inequality of Israeli society and their desire to free themselves.

Cast

* Mouna Hawa as Layla (or Leila), a criminal defence lawyer originally from

Nazareth Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...

, whose family is secular Muslim
Shaden Kanboura
as Nour, a religious Muslim woman studying computer science at Tel Aviv University
Sana Jammelieh
as Salma, a lesbian DJ from a Christian family * Mahmud Shalaby as Ziad, Leila's long-term boyfriend * Henry Andrawes as Wissam, Nour's very religious fiance

Production

Producer

Shlomi Elkabetz Shlomi Elkabetz ( he, שלומי אלקבץ; born 5 December 1972) is an Israeli actor, writer and director. He is known for playing Simon in HBO's ''Our Boys''. Early life Elkabetz mother was a hairdresser and his father was a postal employee. ...

and writer-director Maysaloun Hamoud brought the project to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

's "Pitch Point" in 2015, where it won two prizes: the Turkish YAPIMLAB Award and the IFP Award. The film was funded b
Israel Film Fund

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds a "certified fresh" approval rating of 98% based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''In Between'' takes a light yet nuanced approach to dramatizing complex, timely themes, further enriched by outstanding cinematography and powerful performances." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 79 out of 100 from 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The film depicted women drinking, smoking and partying, causing outrage in the Muslim community of Israel. The film was declared ''

haram ''Haram'' (; ar, حَرَام, , ) is an Arabic term meaning 'Forbidden'. This may refer to either something sacred to which access is not allowed to the people who are not in a state of purity or who are not initiated into the sacred knowle ...

'' by the mayor of

Umm al-Fahm Umm al-Fahm ( ar, أمّ الفحم, ''Umm al-Faḥm''; he, אוּם אֶל-פַחֶם ''Um el-Faḥem'') is a city located northwest of Jenin in the Haifa District of Israel. In its population was , nearly all of whom are Arab citizens of I ...

, the conservative Arab home town of the character Nour. A

fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...

was issued against the director, Maysaloun Hamoud, who is a Palestinian born in Hungary but now resident in Jaffa. The film is rated R16 in New Zealand for violence, sexual violence, drug use and offensive language.

Awards and accolades

The film had its world premiere at the

2016 Toronto International Film Festival The 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 8 to 18 September 2016. The first announcement of films to be screened at the festival took place on 26 July. Almost 400 films were shown. Awards The festival's final awards were ...

where a jury awarded it the NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere. At the 2016 San Sebastian Film Festival, the film won three awards: the Premio EROSKI de la juventud (Eroski Youth Award), the Premio TVE - Otra Mirada (TVE Another Look Award), and the Premio Sebastiane. At the 2016

Haifa International Film Festival The Haifa International Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place every autumn (between late September and late October), during the week-long holiday of Sukkot, in Haifa, Israel. History The festival was inaugurated in 1983 and w ...

, ''In Between'' won the Danny Lerner Award for a Debut Feature Film; additionally, its three principal cast members (Hawa, Jammelieh, and Kanboura) won the Fedeora Award for Artistic Achievement in an Israeli Feature Film. At the 2017

Ophir Awards The Ophir Awards ( he, פרס אופיר), colloquially known as the Israeli Oscars or the Israeli Academy Awards, are film awards for excellence in the Israeli film industry awarded by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television. The award, named ...

, the film had 12 nominations and won for both Best Actress (Shaden Kanboura) and Best Supporting Actress (Mouna Hawa).

References

External links

''In Between'' UK website
* {{IMDb title , 5974388
UniFrance
2016 films 2016 drama films 2016 LGBT-related films 2010s Arabic-language films 2010s feminist films Israeli drama films Israeli LGBT-related films Lesbian-related films Films set in Tel Aviv