'Ajami' looks at both sides of a religious chasm

Written and directed by two Israelis from opposite sides of an ethnic, religious and political chasm - Scandar Copti, a Palestinian, and Yaron Shani, a Jew - "Ajami" initially promises another urgent but disheartening portrait of poverty and corruption. There are, however, glimmers of hope in the abyss.

Named for a subsection of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and partially filmed there with mostly nonprofessional actors, "Ajami" - an Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Film - follows multiple characters through five interconnected chapters. A young Muslim (Shahir Kabaha) lands in the middle of a Bedouin feud; a Palestinian boy (Ibrahim Frege) sneaks across the Israeli border for work; a Jewish cop (Eran Naim) patrols Nablus with rage in his heart. The catalyst for the fast-moving if slightly overcomplicated plot is a bag of white powder belonging to a young hipster convincingly played by Copti (the film's co-creator), who was raised in Jaffa.

The enemies in the various camps have something surprising in common: each other. The younger characters date outside their religion (Muslim and Christian), even outside their language (Hebrew and Arabic), and there are friendships of various combinations. By the same token, the film's very existence speaks to the possibility, however slim, of some kind of peace.