West Bank Story is a
comedy/
musical short film, directed by
Ari Sandel, co-written by Sandel and
Kim Ray, produced by Pascal Vaguelsy, Amy Kim, Ashley Jordan, Ravi Malhotra, and featuring
choreography by
Ramon Del Barrio. The film is a
parody of the classic musical film
West Side Story, which in turn is an adaptation of
Romeo and Juliet. The film follows the romance between the relatives of the owners of rival
falafel restaurants, one
Israeli and the other
Palestinian, respectively named the
Kosher Kings and the
Hummus Hut, in the West Bank. The film stars
Ben Newmark as the Israeli soldier,
Noureen DeWulf as the Palestinian cashier,
A.J. Tannen as the Israeli restaurant owner and
Joey Naber as his Palestinian rival.
The film premiered at the
2005 Sundance Film Festival, and was screened at numerous additional film festivals across the world, garnering several awards. In
2007, at the
79th Academy Awards, it won the
Oscar in the category
Best Live Action Short Film.
Plot
The film begins with a scene in which both the Palestinians and Israelis are both snapping, similar to the opening scene of West Side Story. The two parties head in to their own stands and tell about their own family-owned falafel stands, Hummus Hut and Kosher King ("Our People Must Be Served"). During the day, Hummus Hut employee Fatima and Kosher King relative David are daydreaming about each other ("When I See Him). Fatima then runs out to give a customer their forgotten leftovers, at which point she has a chance encounter with David, when they both realize the other likes them.