The holidays can be a tough time for a lot of people. It’s stressful dealing with family members, and some people understandably get depressed about where they’re at in life. Some try to cope with these issues by using drugs and alcohol. It’s why car accidents usually rise exponentially around that time of year.
Family drama is explored deeply in the foreign independent film Happy Holidays, written and directed by Oscar-nominated Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti, which happens to kick off with a car accident that is not deadly physically, but later drops a bomb socially. The story is told in different chapters and shifts point of view from various characters from two different intertwined families, one Israeli and one Palestinian. A couple from the two families is pregnant, and as one might imagine, there’s much fallout due to the fact that the two warring cultures have many issues with each other, to say the least.
As one pregnant couple is falling apart (Raimi played by Toufic Danial, and his Israeli girlfriend Shirley, played by Shani Dahari), another young couple (Fifi played by the striking Manar Shehab, and Walid played by Raed Burbara) is falling in love, until more dramas ensue due to a previous relationship with a Jewish man. The mother, Hanan (Wafaa Aoun with a fantastic performance), and the father of the Palestinians with relationship issues have their own drama, due to a shady business deal that threatens to ruin the family’s social status, and the mother’s meddling ways and refusal to accept the hard times that are happening in the family.
“Family drama is explored deeply… from two different intertwined families, one Israeli and one Palestinian.”
I find it interesting that no matter how different American culture is from those of these two from the Middle East, Copti shows us how many similarities there really are in family and relationship dynamics. As Depeche Mode sang, “people are people, so why should it be that you and I get along so awfully?” Families will always meddle in each other’s relationships and have internal strife (especially due to financial issues), no matter what the culture. That’s not to say that this is just another family drama; this is compelling due to Copti and the cast. There’s a fascinating moment at the end where Fifi walks away from Walid, and everyone else in the streets is frozen.
There’s social commentary aplenty here because we see the societal pressure that unfolds when Arabs and Jews are together. Raimi feels like he needs to have an abortion because of it, and Shirley’s family feels the same way. They go so far as to send someone in a motorcycle helmet to beat Raimi badly to tell him to stay away. Fifi is labeled a w***e by Walid’s family due to them finding out through medical records (from the aforementioned car accident) that she was using contraception with a Jewish man, so the whole relationship blows up once that’s out in the open.
The story starts out fragmented, so it’s a bit disorienting at first, but when the puzzle comes together, it clicks in a satisfying way, especially when it comes to Fifi’s story. It’s timely to focus on the two cultures that have serious beef with one another, but it’s timeless for a young woman to have love disintegrate due to a past relationship. In that moment at the end, the rest of the world stops, but Fifi marches on.
"…Families will always meddle in each other’s relationships…"
