Directed by Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti, Happy Holidays, set in Israel, is a deeply realistic family drama whose turning points reveal profound cultural and political dimensions surrounding gender and race. Like his Oscar-nominated crime drama Ajami (which he co-directed with Yaron Shani), Copti’s second feature follows a cast of characters—both Arab and Jewish—to piece together a multifaceted portrait of life in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.
In its depiction of strained family relationships and a difficult engagement, Happy Holidays oscillates between anxiety and joy. Copti and cinematographer Tim Cone film each interaction with a close-up intimacy that not only amplifies the actors’ nuanced and powerful performances (many of them first-timers) but also welcomes the viewer into each scene, as if it were a complex family reunion. At the heart of the film’s sprawling plot are four members of an Arab family, who share a few fleeting and enjoyable scenes together, but whose secrets from each other speak to a larger culture of silence, shame, social pressures, and pervasive prejudice.
The film begins on the Jewish holiday of Purim, when the family is brought together by a car accident in which their adult daughter, Frida, or “Fifi” (Manar Shehab), is only slightly injured. Although little in the story concerns life or death, the lives and futures of the characters are brought into sharp, stark focus one by one, each in its own sequence.
The first film revolves around Vivi’s middle-aged brother Rami (Tawfiq Danial), and the events begin when he receives a message that his pregnant Jewish girlfriend Shirley (Shani Dahari) has changed her mind about the abortion they agreed to, leading to a rift between them. For Shirley – who later becomes the focus of her own chapter – this pregnancy means having to face family pressures due to the child’s Arab ethnicity, especially from her sister Miri (Merav Mamorsky), whose personal interactions form an uncomfortable contrast to her sharp venom towards Rami.
For Ramy, the consequences of this story grow increasingly serious, escalating into false accusations and racially charged assaults. Yet Copty doesn’t just categorize Ramy as a victim defined by one aspect of lived existence. Daniel’s performance is commendably infuriating, as a man who seems easily upset, his anger tinged with raw misogyny and childish emotional baggage. More than just feeling sorry for him, we understand him.
Each family member’s story is intertwined with the next. While Rami, who is trying to hide Shirley’s pregnancy and the recent attacks on him, is trying to help his father Fouad (Emad Hourani) deal with a financial debt that is putting pressure on his mother Hanan (Wafaa Aoun), the heroine of a complex maternal story in which she plays the role of noble savior and domineering scold at the same time – and everything in between, thanks to Aoun’s vibrant nuances. Hanan wants to ensure that her eldest daughter Laila’s (Sophie Awwad) wedding goes off without a hitch, so she in turn pressures Fifi to file a medical insurance claim in the wake of the incident. This leads to another complication surrounding the concept of medical privacy within families.
Perhaps the most intriguing is Vivi’s story, as its layers slowly unravel over the course of the film. In her desire to keep her medical history a secret, she claims that her records have been swapped with someone else’s, in order to prevent—or at least delay—her mother from learning more about her private life at college. In the process of unraveling this apparent mess, Vivi also begins to meet Rami’s distinguished doctor friend Walid, and while the two enter into an exciting but undefined relationship, it is still cause for celebration within the family for what this potential relationship could mean. However, Walid’s conservative expectations of Vivi begin to cause tensions as well.
Happy Holidays is not based on a misunderstanding so much as it is based on different social definitions between the genders and generations of Arab men and women. However, the larger cultural backdrop of the film also veers in and out of this patriarchal image. The subtle racism that the Arab characters face is, unfortunately, a common element in their lives. And while Copt does not directly confront the military structures that contribute to these tensions, the Israeli military is an ever-present specter, especially in scenes surrounding education.
For example, Vivi, a kindergarten teacher who is raised to revere Israel’s soldiers, must pass through a security checkpoint where uniformed individuals are allowed through only by waving. Miri, a hardline nationalist, must deal with her high-school-age daughter’s depression over her impending military service. Another generational divide is evident in the form of teenage schoolmates whose concerns about the occupation are dismissed by guest speakers in IDF uniforms. This segment, though short, has the air of a satirical drama that parents don’t understand, except that the main conflict between mother and daughter is the act of contributing to the war.
Silence speaks a thousand words in “Happy Holidays,” from the tensions between family members over what’s not being said, to the quiet acceptance in the face of social norms about what they are expected to accept as Arabs in Israel. At the same time, Copti creates a vivid sense of character (and interpersonal dynamics) by letting the viewer see through long, overlapping dialogue that feels increasingly charged thanks to his naturalistic approach. This is a film about performance, in more ways than one. Not only is every single actor a joy to watch, but they all play characters who are forced to play a specific role in society. It’s through rubbing up against these unspoken boundaries that the drama is born here.
