Laila's Birthday

This is a wonderful movie with a small scope. We follow Abu Laila around in his taxi for one day in the West Bank. It is his daughter Laila's birthday and he is tasked with picking up the cake and getting her a gift, and off he goes. The movie does not try to show how terrible things are for the Palestinians, at least not in a catastrophic way. Rather, the movie shows how the daily grind gets people worn down. Things are very hard to accomplish. Streets close randomly. The cars break down and the fixes are more makeshift than factory-direct. Political jobs are in constant flux and there is little int he way of forward progess. Bombs fall. No one knows who is responsible--terrorists or Israeli's, it seems that people think either is as likely as the other. Trips to the hospital get worked into the schedule. The quiet chaos of everyday life is depicted with warmth and resignation. This community has no security. No real hope for change. Both sides are too entrenched in what separates them rather than what can unite them, and the moment for trust and compromise happened more than a generation ago. And yet life goes on. Birthdays happen, people go to work, children go to school, and the conditions slowly deteriorate. It is a gentle movie about why ongoing war is so destructive.