{"id":7959,"date":"2022-04-15T11:11:42","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T09:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/?p=7959"},"modified":"2022-12-17T11:03:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T09:03:35","slug":"breaking-bread-building-bridges-a-film-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/breaking-bread-building-bridges-a-film-review\/","title":{"rendered":"“Breaking Bread, Building Bridges”: a Film Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Still from Breaking Bread<\/em> with Haifa chefs Shlomi and Ali.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n


\nBreaking Bread, Building Bridges<\/em> (2020)
\nDirected by Beth Elise Hawk
\nRunning time 1 hour 25 minutes<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Food may not be the answer to world peace, but it\u2019s a start. \u2014Anthony Bourdain<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a>Mischa Geracoulis<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Breaking Bread, Building Bridges<\/em><\/a> tells the story of Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel\u2019s culinary attempt at peacemaking. The first Arab to win the Israeli reality show, MasterChef<\/a>, in 2014, Nof sees her position of living amongst several worlds \u2014 Palestinian, Israeli, and abroad \u2014 as uniquely privileged to be an agent of good will, peace, and positive social change. Harking from \u201cThe Triangle,\u201d a region west of the Green Line in Israel inhabited predominantly by Arabs, Nof is Muslim, Arab, Israeli, Palestinian, a microbiologist, woman, wife, mother, and chef.\u00a0 She speaks Arabic, Hebrew, and English fluently, and as evidenced by her groundbreaking win in 2014, is a gifted chef.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Comparing a plateful of vibrant, nutrient-dense food to people, Nof says that variety enhances, offsets, and \u201cpops\u201d the other, increases complementary understanding and perspective-taking. Variety, she says, enhances humanity. Wise words from another philosopher concerned with peace and understanding come to mind. \u201cHumanity begins around a table,\u201d goes the quote attributed to Hannah Arendt (likely from her 1958 book, The Human Condition<\/em>).\u00a0 Arendt\u2019s work is seeing a revival at this time of war in Ukraine, and these remarks seem especially relevant in connecting conflicts across the world. Part and parcel to conflict anywhere is food (in)security, which renders this documentary oddly comforting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since 2015, Nof has orchestrated a one-of-kind food festival in Haifa, Israel that takes place over three days in December and embraces all the holidays of the season. Haifa, according to Mayor Yona Yahav (2003-2018), is the one place on the planet where there\u2019s been full peace between Arabs and Jews for more than 100 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The way the \u201cA-Sham\u201d (Arabic for \u201cThe Levant\u201d) Festival works is that Nof pairs an Arab chef with an Israeli chef, and assigns them with resurrecting an ancient Arabic dish. The chefs meet for the first time, work together on the research and in the kitchen to reproduce the recipe that\u2019d been assumed extinct.\u00a0<\/p>\n