The Reports on Sarah and Saleem is a riveting, suspenseful drama of an extra marital affair between a Palestinian man and an Israeli woman. It’s not long before security services are on to the affair and a simple extramarital affair becomes a spy sensation. Directed by Muayad Alaywan, the film starring Adeeb Safadi (Saleem), Sivane Kretchner (Sarah), Ishai Golan (David) and Mais Abd Elhadi (Bisan) will open on June 12 at Film Forum in New York and June 14 in Los Angeles.
Sarah, an Israeli café owner living in West Jerusalem, has a clandestine relationship with Saleem, her Palestinian bread vendor, who lives in East Jerusalem. When their spouses discover the affair, two lives – already divided by politics, culture, class, and marital commitments – are made infinitely more complicated. A not uncommon betrayal takes on an entirely sinister new twist as Israeli and Palestinian authorities misread the writing on the wall. Based on true events, Palestinian director/writer brothers Muayad and Rami Alayan’s psychological thriller is shot through with dark, intrigue that gives new meaning to the adage that the personal is political.
“We wanted to move away from the romanticized works in cinema or other art forms that use idealized narratives about Palestinians and Israelis coming together that all-too-often ignore the reality that sets people apart in the first place, and the crushing systems that are created to maintain the divide, power, and segregation between them.” – Muayad Alayan
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