MovieChat Forums > Zaytoun (2013) Discussion > Quite Surprised Not a bad film

Quite Surprised Not a bad film


This is one of those surprise films which turns out to be pretty good.
Dorff did a great job with his part, and the only let down was the kid.

I say let down, the overused sad face expressions became irritating after a while, for me that negated his contribution to this film.

I still gave it a 8/10 because the kid (Abdallah El Akal) has the ability, but was given the wrong direction IMO

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A palestian kid born in a refugee camp with dead parents and constant israeli brutality has nothing to be happy about. Before the end he did muster a smile for being able to go back to the country of his ancestors who will never be able to go back in the foreseeable future!!! This is truly a work of fiction where Israel is shown as the Democratic all loving country... that it's not. As the name of the movie suggests this is an attempt at an olive branch scenario which people from the middle East and some israelis dream of. I'm Lebanese having met a few israelis, we both hope that this conflict is over. It's a very very small glimmer of hope that remains!

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Great comment. I've just seen it and I thought the boy's performance was exceptional.

Also the whole film, about a very difficult subject, was handled very well. The humour was just enough to balance the mixed feelings of cynicism and hope.

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I thought the performance of Abdallah El Akal (Fahed) was the best thing about this movie. I was so glad when Yoni reached out to him in the end. I hope Abdallah has a long career, looking forward to his future roles.

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