News

The Israeli crime drama Ajami, one of the five nominees for this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, will have its exclusive Cleveland-area premiere this Friday at The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque.

Co-directed by an Israeli Jew and an Israeli Palestinian, and reminiscent of both City of God and Crash, the movie is a potent crime drama set on the streets of Jaffa’s Ajami neighborhood - a simmering melting pot of cultures, languages, and values. There an assortment of individuals - Arabs, Jews, Muslims, and Christians - lead separate existences that inevitably impact others.

The film, which has an impressive 97% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, will be shown in four screenings on Friday 5/14 (7:15pm), Saturday 5/15 (5:10 and 9:30pm), and Sunday 5/16 (3:45pm).

Listen to an NPR “All Things Considered” segment about this acclaimed film and then catch the movie at what the New York Times recently named “one of the country’s best repertory movie theaters.”

The Cinematheque is located at 11141 East Boulevard in the Gund Building of The Cleveland Institute of Art, one of the nation’s leading accredited independent colleges of art and design. Free parking is available to filmgoers in the adjacent lot.

For more information, visit the Cinematheque page.