A Jewish dancer and a group of Arab Musicians want to perform together.
Elina Pechersky is in charge of five proud Arab men. Five guys with a clear picture of how women should behave; five guys accustomed to being superior to all the women around them. Except she doesn‘t fit their picture of femininity. She is the boss. She is the one giving the orders.
Arabs have lost their homes as a result of the fatal doctrine of “the land without people for the people without a land.” From their point of view, hostile Jewish immigrants came and took away what had belonged to the Palestinians.
Elina Pechersky is Jewish. For her, too, the situation is difficult. Imagine her life as she works with people who treat her with enormous disrespect, both for being female and for being Jewish.
Still, the belly dancer Elina Pechersky and the five Arabs are held together by their love of music. Elina has hired the Arab musicians to accompany her on stage. Together, they work hard toward a common goal as they aim for a great performance for their audience. They go on stage together. Transcending the fear and the hatred, going beyond age-old prejudice and disrespect, they perform as one group. The music unites them. And the people watch. Some inevitably learn.
The film Oriental, directed by Avi Nesher, shows that there is a glimmer of hope for the Arabs and the Jews to live together in peace – if only they try hard enough.
