In Happy Holidays , Scandar Copti's multi-generational patchwork portrait of a family in Haifa, love is complicated by conservative cultural traditions, arcane medical laws, and the irony of being a Christian Arab in a Jewish nationalist land. As in Copti's previous film Ajami , the Palestinian filmmaker has mostly employed non-professional actors and largely improvised dialogue, giving Happy Holidays a uniquely intimate insight into the heart of a singular existence.

Copti's subject is how the demands of the modern world often conflict with the simultaneous hope for cultural preservation. Four characters interconnect in a Pulp Fiction - like, chaptered format , each of whom has trouble balancing the myriad demands of family, love and a curious othering inside their own l

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