Sayed Kashua: Forever Scared

This documentary film, directed by Dorit Zimbalist, provides an insightful portrait of an intelligent and expressive Israeli Arab author, a man who straddles two cultures, and sees himself as a voice for Arabs who are citizens of Israel. Sayed Kashua is well-known in Israeli society. In the film, we see as he reaches out to make an impact by writing a weekly column for the weekend Ha'aretz magazine, scripting the TV series Arab Labor (which has been reviewed on this blog), and speaking at high schools and to groups of soldiers.

An important novelist and commentator, Kashua has become the voice of satire and criticism, especially dealing with how Israeli society treats the Arab minority in its midst. His TV series, which brought the portrayal of Israeli Arabs to prime time TV, is about a man who wants more than anything else to be accepted within Israeli society. But he never can be. Even though the series won an award for Best TV series at the Jerusalem Film Festival, it brought Kashua a lot of criticism from within the Arab community.

This honest documentary provides an in-depth and hard-hitting look at the man, the father, the spokesman, exposing some of his innermost and personal feelings and fears.

The film is available from Ruth Diskin Films.