Rating: NR | Runtime: 101 minutes
Release Date: March 17th, 2022 (Israel) / February 3rd, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Lev Cinemas / Cohen Media Group
Director(s): Eran Kolirin
Writer(s): Eran Kolirin / Sayed Kashua (novel)

It wasn’t a plan, it was a metaphor.

You can’t read the synopsis for Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin’s Let It Be Morning (adapted from Palestinian author Sayed Kashua’s novel) without letting an opinion form about the ongoing conflict and occupation. It calls the setting “an Arab village in Israel”—a description that could very well be objectively true and yet unreliable considering how aggressively violent Israel has been when it comes to illegally expanding its borders.

The narrative literally depicts the construction of a wall and the impact that the resulting roadblock to facilitate it has on the Arab population being physically separated from their own country. Because if this truly is “an Arab village in Israel,” then those Arabs are Israeli.

Despite this fact, and his high-paying job in Jerusalem, Sami (Alex Bakri) is forbidden from crossing the newly formed border. He left the city to return home for his younger brother’s (Samer Bisharat’s Aziz) wedding only to find himself stranded when attempting to drive back with his wife (Juna Suleiman’s Mira) and their son.

Forced to return to his parents and wait out this indefinite incarceration, he’s also forced to open his eyes to just how untenable things have become. You have gangsters calling themselves council members to lord over Palestinians with Israeli permission. There’s a witch-hunt for lower class Palestinians further pitting Arabs against Arabs to their occupiers’ benefit. And, of course, the growing sense of futility where “peace” is concerned.

This comedic look at that futility consists of contradictions and hypocrisy. Everyone in the village holds Sami to a lofty standard as a success despite him being on the bottom rung of a world that refuses to fully accept him enough to help him when under siege (the roadblock brings a power outage and loss of cell signal, so his inability to call work means getting fired isn’t a far-fetched assumption).

Yet he embraces it like a badge of honor anyway, looking down upon old friends like Abed (Ehab Salami) for remaining stuck. It’s why the refusal of Sami’s attempt to help the “illegals” (non-Israeli Palestinians) working construction on his father’s property feels so potent. These laborers doesn’t need one jailer to help escape another. Prison is prison.

There are many powerful moments like that from Sami’s mother (Izabel Ramadan) stealing every scene with nothing more than a wry smile and shrug to Mira reminding her husband that he should be sorry for what he didn’t do rather than what he did.

The latter is a theme that runs throughout: a young Israeli guard leaning on his innocence and rank to justify his complicity, Sami’s father (Salin Daw) perpetually lamenting how the village has let cowardice take hold after his generation stormed blockades as martyrs, and even young Aziz’s fear of being a husband causing him to avoid his wife’s bed like everyone else avoids acknowledging their own shortcomings by blaming anyone but themselves.

Could it be more biting? Sure. A bit more anger would have done it well, but there’s a fine line being toed that makes that difficult. While tasking Kolirin with the adaptation gives the project legitimacy, it also demands a certain level of whitewashing. Israel chose this film as their Oscar submission last year, so that should tell you all you need to know as far as whether the message was hard enough to move the dial.

Did they pick it solely because they thought it was the best production to come out of their country or because its “controversial nature” would help them appear self-critical and progressive? I’ll just say that I doubt they even consider it if it really went for the jugular. You still cannot deny its effectiveness as is, though—especially if that restraint helps earn the eyeballs of those who need to watch it.

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Alex Bakri in LET IT BE MORNING; courtesy of Cohen Media Group.