Ajami -- Film Review

8:38 PM PDT 10/14/2010 by Eric Monder, AP

Empty

The fact that first-time co-directors Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani used a mostly nonprofessional cast and shot "Ajami" on location, sometimes without a script, gives their film a raw, realistic power. The main drawback to this noble effort, just nominated for the foreign-language Oscar, is that the two-hour film is unrelievedly grim and tense.