MovieChat Forums > Ajami (2009) Discussion > my understanding of the ending:

my understanding of the ending:


***** Spoiler

***** spoiler

Malek bought the clock in Nablus (sh'hem) from a random guy (that probably somehow got it from the people/ terrorists that kidnapped and murdered yoni) , the clock was meant to be a birthday present to his friend.

The officer immediately recognized it on the TV surveilance screen and got all emotional, and after confirming that indeed it was the original clock of his murdered brother by the inside engraving we all saw, he drew his pistol and started questioning Malek about it.

The kid brother (Nasri?) that was meant to stay in the car, saw the officer with a pistol in his hand and mistakenly assumed he was about to shoot malek (he didnt know they were undercover police officers and that he was questioning malek) , shot the officer, the other detective shot the kid brother right after that, malek was unharmed only shocked from the whole incidence.

We were supposed to assume all along the film that :
1. The drug dealer (Binj) was murdered by other gangsters (no, he overdosed)
2. after realizing that they were detectives (not gangsters), we thought they were corrupt when Malik recognized one of them in the drug deal(no, they were just searching his appartment after his brother stabbed the neighbour to death)
3. That Binj was a major drug dealer (no, the drugs were'nt his, it was his brother's. he was just a party guy that was about to move-in with his GF)
4. Malik got killed (no, the shot came from the kid brother)
5. The drug deal was driven by nasty gangsters, then assumed corrupt cops (no, it was a police undercoved operation)
6. Dando the police officer seeked random revenge for his murdered brother (no, he just randomly happened to be there)
7. That the restaurant owner would soften in the end (like in every crappy hollywood movie)and let his daughter hook up with Omar (no, he "sold him" to the cops with hope that they will lock him up for a long time)

All loose ends gets binded.
Oh... the irony. the storyteller is dead in the end (A young kid shot from a close range by a 9mm - not a good prognosis at all).
The Officer (Dando) gets also shot, both Omar and Malik are actually unharmed.

None of us saw it coming.
Great film.

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Great recap haifakid, I loved this film as well.

You made one small error however. The person you refer to as Nasri (The guy who went on the drug deal with Malek and dated the daughter) is actually Omar. Nasri is the young kid who got shot

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Amazing review haifakid
Excellent movie. Great story and actors

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haifakid -

I think you've done a pretty good summary of how many first assumptions were upset by the end. However, two points: 1- Omar is the older brother and Malek is the younger (and the storyteller). Isn't it Malek and Dando who get shot in the end? And 2- What about the flashback of the two brothers + friend years earlier on an actual drug run togeter. Malek is shown pulling the trigger. Is this a dream sequence or some actual event, and if actual, does it tie into upending some other assumption and show that what goes around comes around (i.e., he actually shot someone and was getting his cosmic payback)?

NLO

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I think you overlook the main tragedy: both victims at the end are innocent people,- the storyteller boy, who thought to protect his brother, and the cop, who tried to interrogate the youngster who posessed his murdered brother's watch.The one who survived unharmed (Malik is alive but captured by the police,remember: he didn't want to go and was forced by Abu Elias)is Omar- the one who started the whole drug adventure, the gun purchase and was supposed to be locked away (as was intended by Abu Elias when he informed the police about the drug deal).

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polinka - You are correct that we (or at least I) am "quibbling" over plot structure and character and am not discussing the larger tragedies that this movie was obviously meant to dramatize (the problem of "tribes" living together; on-going societal conflict impacting on personal relations and prospects), the fact that someone like myself was able to completely mix up and conflate characters (Nasri/narrator/younger brother with Malek, unrelated teenager) and think there were flashbacks and years gone by, when in fact it was all taking place in the present, says that although this was a very engaging movie, perhaps a little too much coincidence was thrown together to overdramatize the plot.

NLO

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Malek bought the clock in Nablus (sh'hem) from a random guy (that probably somehow got it from the people/ terrorists that kidnapped and murdered yoni)

How did you know this? I don't remember a scene showing how Malek got the watch.

Great summary by the way, you made me noticed a few things that I'd missed.

I'm after whatever the other life bringeth

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Everything haifakid said is accurate except -

There was no TV surveillance screen.

Dando (the officer) saw the pocket watch, opened it up, recognized the engraved message, and began pistol-whipping Malek for more information.

That was the only time viewers saw the written engraving.

We first saw the watch at the :43 mark in the film, after Malek spent the night at Binj's place. Toma woke up Malek, Malek showed Toma the watch he purchased for Abu Elias, Toma flipped it open, but all the viewers saw was the watch face, not the interiour of the cover. Malek asked Toma to find him wrapping paper.

We then saw the watch towards the very end of the film (last chapter, end of last chapter) as Omar and Malek and Nasri were driving towards the meeting place. Malek quickly opened the watch, and we were only quickly shown the watch face, not the interiour of the cover.

Then we saw Dando opening the watch and looking inside the cover, and the camera zoomed in, and we saw the engraving.

I think the point of not showing how Malek obtained the watch and not showing the engraving until the end meant that we don't know the facts about every situation and our perceptions of situations are coloured by our own biases, yet we decide that we know enough about a situation to judge and are "neutral" enough to pass the "right" judgment, but our judgments are absolutely wrong and heavily biased.

All the things haifakid listed re-enforce that theme - judging without knowing all the facts, and judging based on biases.

And that applies to how everyone outside of Israel/Gaza/West Bank judges that situation.

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Quote TemporaryOne-1
"I think the point of not showing how Malek obtained the watch and not showing the engraving until the end meant that we don't know the facts about every situation and our perceptions of situations are coloured by our own biases, yet we decide that we know enough about a situation to judge and are "neutral" enough to pass the "right" judgment, but our judgments are absolutely wrong and heavily biased. "


This is the most important thing I have read about this movie

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Something else I forgot to say before -

but all the viewers saw was the watch face, not the interiour of the cover.

All we do is judge by appearances, without knowing what's within.

All we see is the protective covering, not what's engraved in the heart beneath the covering (and thus blind judgements, biases, bigotries, etc, flow).


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Question: Are the drugs brought to the garage by Omar and Malik actually fake or are the undercover cops pretending that the drugs are fake as part of the drug bust operation? How do we know? Thanks for clarification.

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The powder is definitely fake and we know this because when the film shows us life in Ajami from Binj's point of view, we see Binj plant stashes of fake drug packages throughout his place. When he finished, he flushed part of the real dope down the toilet bowl, and snorted the rest, and [intentionally] overdosed in the process.

Omar and Malik stole one of those fake stashes.

The cops went from shocked to angry in the blink of an eye because their undercover operation was ruined (fake drugs meant no arrest, and a completely ruined undercover operation).

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Thanks for the response. I recalled most of what you describe. I may have missed it but I thought that Binj gave a bag of white powder to Malik (as opposed to it being stolen). Which one stole the bag from Binj?

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Malik watched him hide that bag of powder, which was real dope, 200 grammes of Crystal Meth.

Binj hid it right in front of Malik, in a black box (speaker? music amplifier? not sure what that black thing was but it had something to do with music).

This occurred at the 42 minute mark.

After Binj's place was ransacked by the Israeli cops (who were dressed normally), he removed that bag and replaced it with fake dope, and planted fake dope throughout his entire place, to throw off and mock the police officers.

Malik intended to steal the dope the moment he saw Binj hide it. It's implied that he went with Omar and stole it off-camera, after Binj's death.

Also I think the real dope was not even Binj's to begin with. He was stashing drugs for other people.


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"Also I think the real dope was not even Binj's to begin with. He was stashing drugs for other people. "

You're right. Remember when a man named Sisse came over to Binj's place and handed him the drugs? He told Binj to 'look after them' for someone else.

"It's implied that he went with Omar and stole it off-camera"

It's not implied, it actually shows them stealing the 'dope'. They go to Binj's apartment with torches and note the mess the detectives (who they thought were the murderers) made in his house, and they note the blood on the couch. Then they take the 'drugs'.

-----
"I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy" - Neville Longbottom

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Thank you for the clarification. I knew I watched that scene, but I had a hard time finding it on the DVD when I went back to double check a few scenes relating to the fake drugs, and I ended up thinking that I was wrong and it happened off-camera.

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how do u know how malek got the watch?
This is the biggest question this film left me...

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It is never actually shown, but it is easy to deduce that Dando's brother was indeed kidnapped, robbed and killed by Palestinians, as they find his body near the border.
Malek crosses over regularly to work in Jaffa and could have bought it from the robber themselves, or someone else who bought it from them...
When you take a look at the chronology, it works. Dando's brother gets killed (they say he's been dead for a while when they find his body), Malek comes back to Jaffa to work with a pocket watch...

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Also, it could be a completely different watch. Dando is just upset over his brother's death and could have mistaken Malek's watch for his brother's. We don't actually see the engraving clearly . Or do we...

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Great explanation of an excellent film.

thanks






When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

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