Four intertwined stories of two families in Haifa, one Palestinian, the other Israeli, form a universal cry for dignity. Filmmaker Scandar Copti explores the deception that occurs where government agencies, social pressures and cultural conventions intersect.
While studying at university in Jerusalem, Fifi prefers to keep her private life hidden from her Palestinian family. But when she suffers minor injuries in a car accident, details from her medical records come to the attention of her parents.
The four main characters each want to make their own decisions, but the demands and expectations of their families and society stand in their way. A system of lies emerges- lies to maintain the status quo, uncomfortable facts that are concealed, misplaced assumptions about others, generally accepted truths that are blindly adopted. Some lies seem harmless, others are security threats. All testify to a life in fear of judgement.
Against a backdrop of consistently poor Arab-Israeli relations, Happy Holidays can be read as a critique of the state apparatus' oppression of Israeli Arabs. But it is also a universal cry for personal dignity. When the house of cards finally collapses and the hard truth is spoken, its liberating power-if only temporarily-is astounding.
