Israeli film director Shai Carmeli-Pollak’s latest film, “The Sea,” is about a young Palestinian boy from the West Bank who is denied a permit to visit Tel Aviv with his classmates. Longing to see the Mediterranean, he courts danger as he sets out to make the journey on his own.  

The Arabic-language drama was released in Israel in July; in September, it won five Ophir Awards — Israel’s version of the Oscars — including for best picture, which means “The Sea” is also Israel’s submission into the Academy Awards for best international feature film. 

And now, “The Sea” is making its North American premiere on Thursday at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Ave.). The screening — which also includes a reception and a Q+A with director Carmeli-Pollak and Palestinian producer Baher Agbaria — kicks off this year’s Other Israel Film Festival, an annual event that spotlights untold stories from Israeli and Palestinian societies.

Filmed in the summer of 2023, “The Sea” is partially inspired by true events: Carmeli-Pollak visited the West Bank for the first time in the early 2000s, during the Second Intifada.

“Seeing what’s going on really influenced me,” Carmeli-Pollak, 57, said, describing how a border wall between the West Bank and Israel, begun in 2002, restricted Palestinian travel into Israel. “And I started to go more and more and more and became an activist.” 

Carmeli-Pollak became an activist alongside groups like Anarchists Against the Wall, a group advocating against the concrete security wall between Israel and the West Bank. His experiences informed the 2006 documentary, “Bilin, My Love,” about a Palestinian village set for demolition by the Israeli government. 

No one particular moment or event inspired “The Sea,” Carmeli-Pollak said. Rather, the director said it was the West Bank residents’ longing for the sea — something Carmeli-Pollak said he frequently heard — as well as their desperate need for employment, that informed the film. ”it was a long period that I met people, and they spoke about this,” he said. 

Since its release, “The Sea” has been ensnared in political crosshairs: It was produced with financial support from the Israel Film Fund, a public fund that was described as an institution “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people” by a growing boycott against the Israeli film industry signed by more than 1,200 prominent Hollywood stars. 

On the other end of the political spectrum, Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar, a Likud Party member, has called for the defunding of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, which runs the Ophir Awards. Zohar, who has only seen “the most important parts of the movie.” claims the film portrays the Israeli military in a negative light.

“It is probably the hottest Israeli film of the year,” Isaac Zablocki, the executive director of the Other Israel Film Festival and the JCC’s senior director of film programs, said of the festival’s sold-out screening of “The Sea.” 

“Since all this noise with the boycott of Israeli films — and on the other side, the Israeli government declaring its lack of support for this film specifically, and Israeli cinema in general — it’s felt even more important for us to highlight this film as much as possible and really give it as much support,” Zablocki added. “I think this movie, right now, is exactly what Israel needs.”

The New York Jewish Week spoke with Carmeli-Pollak just days before the film’s North American premiere. Keep scrolling for our conversation. 

This interview has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity.

Was the idea always to tell this story from a Palestinian perspective?

The idea from the very beginning was to tell the story from the point of view of a Palestinian child. That perspective allows us to strip away the almost automatic “political” baggage that comes with an adult’s point of view.

A child’s perspective is free from all that complexity. In that sense, for me the film is not necessarily just a Palestinian story, but rather a story about two societies living on opposite sides of the wall — the Palestinian and the Israeli.

We have an opportunity to see Israeli society through the eyes of this child, and perhaps to look again at things that are usually invisible or taken for granted.

How did you find the cast and crew? 

The cast is a mix of professional actors and non-actors. Naturally, the boy, Muhammad Gazawi, was not a professional actor. I met him when I visited a Thai boxing club in a Palestinian city inside Israel called Qalansawe. I met there a group of tough young athletes, and he quickly struck me as a boy with remarkable acting abilities.

You said the rough cut of the film was already completed by Oct. 7, 2023. Can you tell me more about what the cross-cultural collaboration looked like at the time?

We shot the film in the summer of 2023. Apart from the fact that the producer is Palestinian, the crew was mixed — Palestinians and Israelis.

On set you could hear both Hebrew and Arabic blending together naturally. The crew made the same journey shown in the film — moving between Palestinian villages, where we received a warm welcome and generous hospitality, and cities inside Israel. Even before Oct. 7, it wasn’t common to see a joint production like this, and it was a special experience for everyone involved. For many of the Israeli crew members, it was their first time being hosted in a Palestinian village. After the war broke out, Baher and I were deeply worried and heartbroken — first and foremost for the people we care about, but also for the film.

We thought no one would want to watch such a small story when horrific events were happening all around. And indeed, at first we faced difficulties in distributing the film. But as time went by, it seems that openness to a story like this is slowly returning, and we hope the film will reach as wide an audience as possible.

What was that partnership like in the wake of Oct. 7?

I was in contact all the time with Baher, the producer. He’s Palestinian, and we were both horrified by what’s going on — by the 7th of October, and with the reaction in Gaza, which was terrible. We were really, really worried. But we also felt like maybe nobody would want to watch the film now. I spoke to the actors, like Khalifa Natour [who plays Ribhi, Khaled’s father], who were devastated with what’s going on. But our communication was just the same — as friends, as people that are in the same circle. It’s not that now, suddenly, I’m from one side, and he is from the other side. It felt like we’re still connected.

At the end of the film, when Khaled and Ribhi are being arrested by the police, there’s a shot where the Israelis at the café kind of pause for a moment; they look shocked or horrified, and then they go back to their coffee. What were you trying to say about Israeli society and their attitudes toward police or military violence against Palestinians?

I tried to make this film not just to speak about Israeli society, but about human beings, to make it more universal in a way. I was really, really inspired by “Bicycle Thieves,” the Italian film by Vittorio De Sica from the 1940s. It tells the story of a father and son, also. And I was so emotional by this film, 80 years after it was made. I felt that I wanted to make a film that people can watch years from now, and still get the story.

So the idea was about human beings and the way that people are behaving, of course, in political arrangements, because everything is politics. I don’t think people in other countries would behave differently in this kind of system that exists here.

People just live their lives. They sit in a café, they see this scene, and then, like the viewers in the cinema, they go back to their lives after they sit.

In a way, I think generally, what I was trying to say is that people are not evil. They’re not looking to hurt other people, but because the system is very, very corrupt and discriminative and injustice unjustified, this is what caused all the problems.

The Israeli Culture Ministry, led by Miki Zohar, wants to defund the Ophir Awards, which had granted you many awards for this film. Is there any update on that?

He did establish his own competition and to offer a lot of money for each prize. So he is using public money for his agenda, which is not surprising. This is the way this populist fascist government is working. And besides this, I don’t know anything new.

I would prefer to live in a place where the minister of culture supports films and supports the freedom of speech and doesn’t try to block it. But when the situation is like this, at least, he saved me from — now that the film goes out to the world — having to explain that I’m not representing this government. 

What do you hope that New York viewers — especially Jewish viewers who may be unfamiliar with Palestinian life in the West Bank, or their interactions with Israelis — will get out of your film?

I don’t know if I’m telling something new to people, but maybe so. I guess liberals know there is discrimination against people that live under the occupation. But it’s not an article; it’s different when you read about it and when you experience it more in a more emotional way.

So maybe the idea is that the film can give you another aspect of this — to actually have some feelings about the story of this kid, and to maybe open these channels of understanding, and know that what’s going on here can’t go on like it used to be before. We can’t go back to the same point as before the war. There should be a deep change, and we need the support from the outside for this change. That’s for sure. There are a lot of forces inside Israel and forces in the United States that are against these kinds of changes.

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BROOKLYN — There were plenty of “Jews for Zohran” at Brooklyn Paramount, the recently refurbished music venue where Zohran Mamdani and his biggest supporters celebrated his mayoral election victory Tuesday night.

Present at the rally were many of the Jews who make up left-wing organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, whose endorsements and campaigning under the Jews for Zohran mantle became a driving force behind the democratic socialist’s support.

“This is an amazing night for Jews for Zohran and Jewish New Yorkers,” said Carlyn Cowen, co-chair of JFREJ’s board, in an interview. “This is an amazing night for everyone who has been fighting for our democracy, for housing, for childcare, for the entire vision of Zohran’s campaign, which is joy and love. Incredible.”

Mamdani’s long-held anti-Israel views made the 34-year-old democratic socialist a polarizing candidate for many Jews in the city, with the Jewish establishment and a significant majority of Jewish voters backing his main rival, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“There’s going to be important bridging work to do in the Jewish community … so we can move forward and everybody can feel like their interests are being looked after and they can feel safe in the city,” said Jamie Beran, CEO of the progressive Jewish organization Bend the Arc.

But healing would need to wait for another day. On Tuesday night, the mood was jubilant as eager energy erupted into an all-out dance party celebrating Mamdani’s decisive victory. News of the race being called, only about 40 minutes after polls closed, sent the at-capacity room into a frenzy. Waves of shouts and shrieks erupted. Friends hugged and cried tears of joy, some expressing disbelief despite Mamdani’s long stretch at the top of the polls.

“New York, tonight you have delivered,” Mamdani said during his victory speech. “A mandate for change. A mandate for a new kind of politics.”

For progressive Jews in the city, the change could not be starker. Suddenly, following an Eric Adams administration largely unsympathetic to their views, left-wing groups such as JVP and JFREJ will have an ally in City Hall who’s aligned with them on an array of issues including income inequality, taking on Donald Trump and pro-Palestinian advocacy.

As his Jewish supporters gushed about what parts of Mamdani’s agenda they are most keen to see enacted, most did not bring up his longstanding, unwavering support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that has put a wedge between segments of the Jewish community.

“Universal childcare, number one!” said Cowen.

“All of his campaign promises around affordability are so critical for the lives of everyone who lives in New York City,” said Beran, who also said she is “really grateful” for Mamdani’s “commitments around hate crime prevention.”

“I think the fact that he was the only candidate that had a clear and specific platform, committing to an 800% increase to hate crime prevention to protect Jews and everyone in New York, is such an important part of his platform,” Beran said.

Katie Unger, who co-founded JFREJ’s political arm, the Jewish Vote, said she was most eager to see Mamdani fight back against Trump and protect immigrants.

“After 10 months of watching our immigrant neighbors getting abandoned by our mayor, I’m so glad that on day one, we’re gonna have a mayor who stands up for an immigrant city against ICE,” Unger said. “It’s been heartbreaking and appalling, particularly as a Jew, to watch this city of immigrants abandon our immigrant neighbors, from City Hall down.”

Rabbi Moishe Indig, the Satmar Hasidic rabbi who endorsed Mamdani in a split in his community, stood out for wearing a black suit and kippah, rather than the typical blue “Jews/tenants/hot girls/etc. for Zohran” T-shirt.

“We have large families, we could use affordable housing and to have a better life, hopefully,” Indig said about his community, saying he felt “great” about Mamdani’s win.

But while Stefanie Fox — JVP’s executive director who traveled from her home in Seattle for the event — said she was “thrilled about the affordability for this city,” she also emphasized that the mayor “has a tremendous role to play in defining the way that New York’s support for Israeli occupation and apartheid happens.”

She added, “So I’m really happy to see an administration where that might be possible to move.”

In a sign that pro-Palestinian activists are already geared up to lobby a mayor inclined to agree with them, Fox mentioned JVP’s new campaign, “Break the Bonds,” which is advocating for comptroller-elect Mark Levine to follow Brad Lander’s lead in not reinvesting in Israel bonds; Levine, however, has stated his intention to invest in them.

“That’s the kind of example where even though it’s the comptroller’s decision, it’s a different conversation in this New York,” Fox said.

Mamdani’s candidacy coincided with amid surging pro-Palestinian sentiments among the broader liberal electorate, and inside the hall, evidence of the cause was on vivid display. Some attendees wore keffiyehs as they embraced in celebration. Mamdani was joined on stage by his wife, an artist who was wearing a top by a Palestinian designer, and parents, a scholar and film director who are prominent supporters of the boycott Israel movement. And outside, a group of Neturei Karta anti-Zionist Jewish protesters stood holding a sign that read, “Congratulations NYC. Zohran Mamdani 0% AIPAC Funded.”

A number of Mamdani’s backers from the political and cultural worlds were in attendance, many of whom share his strongly critical views of Israel, including actress Cynthia Nixon, streamer Hasan Piker, and Jamaal Bowman, the former congressman whose name has circulated as a possible schools chancellor for Mamdani. (Mamdani has not indicated if he has a preferred chancellor.)

Brad Lander, Mamdani’s most prominent Jewish ally in city politics who cross-endorsed him ahead of the Democratic primary, was also on hand.

So was Jewish stand-up comedian and podcaster Adam Friedland, who went on a passionate rant against Israel to pro-Israel Rep. Ritchie Torres back in August.

“It’s a crap job, right?” Friedland said in an interview. “It’s really tough to be the mayor of such a big city, right? But I think he’s a genuine person. I met him and he’s kind of, like, he’s just a millennial. He likes soccer and democratic socialism.”

Mamdani did not mention Israel or Palestine during his speech, keeping his focus on New York City and the diversity of New Yorkers whom he hopes to represent as mayor.

“We will build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism,” Mamdani said, drawing cheers.

As the election drew closer over the last two weeks, Jewish leaders and rabbis came out in droves to warn Jewish voters about his anti-Israel rhetoric. A letter signed by 1,100 rabbis from across the country warned of the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism, naming Mamdani.

Bend the Arc’s Beran said the election result may very well be a sign that the letter, despite its many signatures, did not achieve its intended effect.

“We’ll have to see how the actual vote shook out, but I think it’s clear that a lot of Jews saw through the fear-mongering,” she said. “I think people were able to see the complete picture of the campaign and also understand that Zohran actually cares about Jewish safety.”

An early exit poll conducted by CNN suggested that about a third of Jewish voters had cast their ballots for Mamdani, with two-thirds backing Cuomo.

Rafael Shimunov, a JFREJ member who hosts a radio show called “Beyond the Pale,” said Mamdani’s victory was proof that the tactics used by Cuomo and his mega-donors need not be successful.

“I’m feeling exhilarated and hopeful and excited about what this means for the rest of this country, every city and town in this country,” he said. “This proves tonight that even among all the attempts at dividing us, using my people, antisemitism, using the Jewish community as a wedge in the coalition — didn’t work.”

Now, Mamdani’s challenge will turn from campaigning, where he has a long track record of explosive success, to governing, which he said — slyly quoting Cuomo’s father Mario, himself a former governor — he intended to do “in prose.” He has never held an executive role.

“I don’t know if we’re going to accomplish everything, I don’t know how long it’s going to take,” said Rabbi Abby Stein, who’s closely involved with JVP and JFREJ, and was responsible for the Yiddish translations of the Mamdani campaign signs posted around Hasidic areas of Brooklyn. “But I know that we have someone who’s going to try.”

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Among pollsters familiar with the American Jewish vote, the events of Nov. 4, 2025 in New York City will go down as Opposite Day.

A CNN exit poll showed that Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor-elect, received just about 30% of the Jewish vote, while his opponents, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, together received a total of 70%. Those numbers are effectively the inverse of the Jewish vote in decades of national elections, which have usually seen the Democratic candidate getting between 70% and 80% of the Jewish vote.

Now, that stark divide is one that Jews, and Mamdani, will have to learn to live with.

For the majority of Jews who opposed Mamdani, there are a few primary lessons.

First and foremost: If you want people to care about your most important issues, you first have to address their most important issues.

Pro-Palestinian positions may have fueled Mamdani’s politics and established his early volunteer base, but they didn’t win him the election. The New Yorkers who voted for him “overwhelmingly” said cost of living is their top issue, reported CNN.

For most New Yorkers who hit the polls, questions about Mamdani’s attitude toward Israel Israel — and even concerns about antisemitism — paled in importance beside affordability.

Yet one tone-deaf Jewish leader after another pleaded with voters to reject Mamdani because of his highly critical attitude toward Israel. That stance, they said, could lead to attacks on Jewish New Yorkers.

Exactly why should economically besieged New Yorkers care?

Second, I suspect we will find out that a good portion of the Jewish voters who did opt for Mamdani did so not despite his stance on Israel, but because of it.

Most American Jews say Israel has committed war crimes against Palestinians. Some 68% are unhappy with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Most can’t vote against Netanyahu, but they can vote for Mamdani, or their local equivalent.

The Jewish vote for Mamdani was a rebuke to the mainstream Jewish leadership that organized against the mayor-elect. That leadership didn’t speak for these Jews. Mamdani did.

It’s also surely true that some portion of Jewish Mamdani supporters voted for him while opposing his views and statements about Israel — what my fellow Forward columnist Jay Michaelson called the “No-Yes option”. These Jewish voters saw Mamdani, in the last months of his campaign, reach out to Jewish leaders, political opponents, business interests and others as a sign that he was open to compromise and bridge-building.

And third: While many in the Jewish community had good reasons to oppose Mamdani, they should be grateful for those Jews who supported him. There is a certain blessing in the fact that center-left Jewish leaders like outgoing Comptroller Brad Lander and former New York City mayoral candidate Ruth Messinger got behind Mamdani — because under his administration they will now be in or near the room where it happens.

These leaders, who have been slammed by some as traitors, sell-outs and self-haters for supporting Mamdani, now have the opportunity to help him make good on his promise to protect and serve Jewish New Yorkers.

Mamdani built reassurance on that front into his victory speech Tuesday night.

“We will build a city hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism,” he said, before pivoting to decry the Islamophobia he faced in the campaign.

But Mamdani himself has much to learn, too.

Tomorrow, when the party is over and the 34-year-old mayor-elect begins meeting with his transition team,what lessons should he draw from the Jewish vote’s split?

Above all, that “being overly controversial on Israel is not in his self-interest,” said Peter Dreier, a professor of politics at Occidental College in Pasadena, Calif. “He needs to bring people together. He needs to focus laser-like on running the city and his affordability agenda.”

It’s one thing to be critical of Netanyahu, and another to say, as Mamdani has, that he would boycott the joint research center between Cornell University and Israel’s Technion based on New York City’s Roosevelt Island. He should stick to the former.

And as he works to fulfill his promise to make New York more affordable, Mamdani must also keep his promise to Jewish New Yorkers to keep them safe.

There will be special, if unfair, scrutiny of how this Muslim mayor relates to his Jewish citizens, and Mamdani could prove the fearmongers to be, well, fearmongering.

He must show he can rein things in, said Dreier, who served as deputy mayor of Boston in the 1980s under Ray Flynn. Flynn was feared by the business elite but left office with a 74% approval rating. “We ran a very progressive campaign,” Dreier said, “and then we had to figure out what we were going to give in, and where we could hold the line.”

And it’s not just New Yorkers and New York Jews who will be watching. Mamdani’s religion and views on Israel have made it inevitable that American Jews across the country will be either on board, or on edge.

Will Mamdani work to flip the Jewish voter exit poll numbers for his next race back to the familiar 70/30? That would seem to be the move for a young politician with a promising career ahead of him, and with a Jewish constituency that is predisposed to vote for the Democrat.

But say he leans into his radical roots and betrays his promises? That would leave a lot of Jews feeling politically homeless — at a time when the Republicans are opening the doors to explicitly antisemitic far-right figures like Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens. The question of whether Jews still fit, politically, in the United States — and if so, where — is one that Mamdani will have a crucial role in answering.

“My rabbi has been on the job for three months and just gave a sermon about Mamdani,” Dreier said. “I mean, why the hell would a rabbi here in Pasadena care about who’s the mayor of New York?”

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