Rent In Between (2016)

A familiar theme hammered home - In Between review by JR

Good performances, but the theme of the film is familiar - the clash between the conservative and sexist values of Palestinian men and parents , and the western free lifestyles of their daughters. One of the flatmates is a lesbian, one is very devout, and the third is a lawyer who is also regular drug and alcohol user. The film maker's political and philosophical points are hammered home in an unsubtle way which detracts from the viewer's involvement with the characters. I began to think the film had been funded by the tobacco industry because almost every frame in the film featured cigarette smoking.

Expected more - particularly the subtitles - In Between review by JS

The problem with film is that it is supposed to transport one beyond the stereotype and engage with the story.

Here, the nuances were often lost in the subtitles.

WHITE ON WHITE SUBTITLES DON'T WORK!! IS ANYONE LISTENING?

The first half floundered without firming up the character relationship.

The second half was much better and the director delivered the expected patriachy, a little bit of the inter-communal tensions but do liberated Palestinian "girls" really behave so outlandishly even in a cosmopolitan city like Tel Aviv?

A ground-breaking film that earned the director a fatwa! - In Between review by PV

OK so this film can be hard work and a bit slow at first BUT it's the first Arab/Palestinian film to show real life like this, and got the director/writer condemned massively and even got her a fatwa from imams! That means it's worth watching.

If this were made in Britain, the assault scene would be used as a stick to beat all men with and the woman who suffered it would be destroyed; here in this society, she moves on. Says it all really.

Islam and preachers come out of this badly, and both women and gay people are shown living their lives in a place where characters say to each other 'Where do you think this is - Europe?'

However, this is not male attitude to women but MUSLIM attitudes - which include often very conservative and devout Muslim women who are the ones who organise forced marriage, oppression of wives and FGM.

Worth remembering that 10% of Israel's population is Arab and they enjoy the SAME rights as anyone else in law - and work in professions there too. It must be liberating for them, as is shown here.

Not great but interesting to watch at least.