Would You Have Sex with an Arab?

Would you have sex with an Arab? This is the question that documentary filmmaker Yolande Zauberman asks when she dives into the nightlife of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. With a small, simple camera she gets up close to people she comes across in clubs, bars and on the street. Again and again, she asks this same question—and it’s not so much about sex or love, but about politics.

In the haze of the night, the answers are raw and frank. While one person immediately rejects the idea of “sleeping with the enemy”, another candidly explains how her night of love with a Palestinian felt like making peace. The words and phrases that keep cropping up in the conversations are striking: “forbidden”, “treason”, and a hesitancy about what the family might think.

And from this one question, others inevitably follow: whether the sex is different, whether love can overcome hate. Made during a period when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had calmed a bit, this documentary shows in a cutting and provocative but moving way how it affects the lives of individuals at the most intimate level.