The Other Son
Directed by Lorraine Levy
Starring Pascal Elbé, Jules Sitruk, Mehdi Dehbi, Emmanuelle Devos
Theatrical Release Date October 26, 2012
Run Time 105 min
As he prepares to join the Israeli army for his national service, Joseph discovers he is not his parents’ biological son, but that he was inadvertently switched at birth with Yassin, the son of a Palestinian family from the West Bank.\r\n\r\nThis revelation turns the lives of these two families upside-down, forcing them to reassess their respective identities, their\r\nvalues and their beliefs.
[T]he film’s ultimate message is heard loud and clear: Bloodlines run thicker than political boundaries, and decades of conflict cannot quell a mother’s love for her son, or a young man’s taste for freedom.
A switched-at-birth tale, The Other Son raises the stakes on what is already an emotionally charged situation.
The Other Son works best as an interesting case study to examine ridiculous labels and traditions people use for hatred, oppression, vengeance, and misunderstanding.
Can your son, the one you brought up, ever stop being your son? Can the “other” be any less your son? Or, as Joseph asks, am I still Jewish?
The Other Son waters the seeds of empathy in our hearts as we ponder the miracles that can happen when we walk a mile in another person’s shoes and truly desire to understand the broader context of another’s life.
The director makes a point of fleshing out each relationship quite beautifully and in completely believable ways – the relationship between mother and son, between father and son, siblings, and, most compelling, the relationships between the two mothers (Palestinian and Israeli) and the two fathers.
| Name | Role |
| Pascal Elbé | Cast Member |
| Jules Sitruk | Cast Member |
| Mehdi Dehbi | Cast Member |
| Emmanuelle Devos | Cast Member |
| Lorraine Levy | Director |
Run time 105 min
Year Completed 2012