Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Friday Film: The Cell Phones That Bind

Crossposted from Israeli Film & Filmmakers

Image by Lama Films

On July 13, I attended the premiere screening at the Jerusalem International Film Festival of “Man Without a Cell Phone,” directed by Sameh Zoabi. The film is a social comedy about a young man and his father, who are fighting the system by opposing a cell phone tower that represents Israeli oppression, technology and modernity, all of which are invading village life. The plot is loosely based on a true story in which two young men, one of whom is still sitting in prison, blew up a cell phone tower built near a school on the outskirts of their village.

Jawdat and his father live in the small community of Iksal, near Nazareth in the Galilee. The father, who is suspected of destroying the previous cell phone tower, is a bit of an over-the-top irritable type. Together with some of his friends and with the assistance of Jawdat, he plans a demonstration opposing the rebuilt cell phone tower that stands in the middle of their agricultural lands.

Jawdat, on the other hand, is just a regular guy, flirting with girls, hanging out with his friends, and studying for his Israeli college exams. The exams are in Hebrew, which makes them easier for those who speak the language as their mother tongue, and they also test for cultural material, which is unfair to a population with a different culture. As a result, many Israeli Arabs have gone abroad to study.

But Jawdat is more interested in girls than in studying, and it doesn’t matter if they are Muslim, Christian, or even Jewish. In the film he begins courting a girl from Ramallah via cell phone. One day, two guys from the Israeli security services pick him up to scare him. They’ve tracked his calls and want to know what he’s doing calling the West Bank. Is he planning to assist in a terrorist attack? It doesn’t dawn on them that he might just be chatting with a girl, or that he might be thinking of moving to Ramallah to study at Bir Zeit University. This scene is a bit forced, but it is funny. In fact, the filmmaker himself is married to a woman from Ramallah.

Using comedy as its critical tool, the film offers entertainment, as well as political and social commentary. Most impressively, it manages to do both at the same time.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.