The Other Son is such a lovely film! Beautifully plotted, great casting, politically bold, and tremendous balancing of crisp pacing with the unrushed capturing of key emotional moments. It was one of the best films of 2012, without a doubt.

The idea behind this exploration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is really a brilliant device: an Israeli family and a Palestinian family find out that their teenage sons were switched at birth in the confusion of a Scud missile attack during the first Gulf War. It’s a French film, and they introduce a specific and powerful element of commonality: the mothers both have a connection to France – one is from there, the other lived there briefly and has relatives who moved there and still live there – and hence the mothers and the sons both speak French (and a little English.) As the two families stumble forward, their lives and everything they believe in shattered, the French language becomes a symbol of their shared humanity, which is forced in their faces by this traumatic event. This opens up a lot of great dialog possibilities, without sacrificing any of the tense and meaningful language issues (Hebrew/Arabic) inherent in their situation. It’s not often that a device like this works so spectacularly, without calling undo attention to itself.

Every aspect of this film is beautifully and elegantly developed. The deep and complex feelings of the parents. The disorientation but much easier acceptance of the young boys, who in fact become friends. The handling of the political issues, which has the balls to call a spade and spade and subtly side with the oppressed Palestinians, but which manages to do so not in a preachy, Costa-Gavras way, but from a very modern, youthfully idealistic perspective  (this aspect of the film was particularly marvelous.) The all-important physical casting, which is damn near perfect, adding a palpable extra emotional weight to everything that transpires. In addition, the film is beautifully shot, with a strong sense of place. And perhaps above all else, The Other Son is extremely pleasant to watch, which for this kind of political film is very exceptional.

I loved this film. I very highly recommend it.