The Other Son by Lorraine Levy

The characters in The Other Son communicate with each other in French, English, Hebrew, and Arabic. This many different languages featured in the film represents the points of connection and disconnection the members of both families experience. The situations and relationships in which these languages are spoken adds tension to the movie. It was not always obvious which language two or more characters would use to communicate. Language was also a device to demonstrate certain character's development in reaching out to another, apologizing, making friends, etc. For example, Yassin and Joseph's fathers speak in English to each other, and the most we see them talk is about Israeli-Palestinian fighting, bombing, and politics. English, a language with a particular political alignment and agency, is their only common language. They speak it awkwardly, in my point of view as a native speaker. This awkwardness is brilliant -it fills the soundscape with tense pauses, mumbles and slurs. It becomes clear how difficult it is for the families to attempt to share anything (space, experiences, each other). There are beautiful subtleties in this use of language that tell the audience about the characters' relationships.

A prominent kind of shot in this film is like the photo above. There are  two figures shown together to show some unity and agreement. This is contrasted with shots where the pair is not together and positioned at the same height level. The agreement between the two married couples dissolves as the mother's accept the news and the fathers struggle against it. Thus the shot where two figures share the frame's space changes to be of the two women or the two sons -not the typical family structure seen more in the beginning of the film.

The still above is a wider version of this tense shot. The two couples are in their distinct pairs, and are further distinguished by the slight diagonal of the computer screen and the bookshelf in the background.  Even the colors of their clothes, the contrast between the light colors on the left and the darker clothes on the right, represent the differences between the families and highlight the tension in this scene.

I suggest going to see it. I don't want to share much of the story here.