Noam Shuster Eliassi appears in Coexistence, My Ass! by Amber Fares, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Coexistence, My Ass! Review: A Plea for Peace, with a Punchline

Sundance 2025

/
8 mins read

Coexistence, My Ass!
(USA/France, 95 min.)
Dir. Amber Fares
Programme: World Cinema Documentary Competition (World premiere)

 

Comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi has been at ground zero for two pivotal moments in contemporary history. Coexistence, My Ass! observes as the comedian strolls the hallowed campus of Harvard University in late 2019 and early 2020. She approaches the worn-out and therefore germ-laden shoe on the statue of university benefactor John Harvard, she notes that all those kisses probably made the campus the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Forget China!” she laughs.

The other place that informs Eliassi’s quick-witted perspective is Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam. The town she calls home is a bilingual Israeli-Palestinian village and the only intentionally integrated community in the country. They call it the “Oasis of Peace” with good reason.

That diversity of cultures and perspectives means that Eliassi, who is Jewish, but is often perceived to be Arab due to her Persian roots from her mother’s side, has unique insight regarding Israeli-Palestinian relations. It also means she’s been the object of mistaken identity many times and knows firsthand how people in the same community have vastly different lived experiences simply due to ethnicity and religion.

This material could fuel many traumatic therapy sessions, but Eliassi instead mines Israeli-Palestinian relations for comedic gold. She becomes a hit on the comedy circuit with bold humour. She’s not afraid to make herself the butt of the joke. Jokes about her love life and family drama invites audiences into a laugh. But she also knows that drawing people in through comfortable humour ensures they’re attentive when the jokes get serious.

Her comedic bits introduce pressing observations about human rights. She shifts between English, Hebrew, and Arabic to illustrate how passing informs her life and how code-switching invites pockets of an audience to relate to jokes at different times. Finding the right interplay between “Hamas” and “hummus,” her humour forces audiences to consider their own positionality.

Moreover, Eliassi’s success in speaking to audiences includes prolific reach as an influencer. Her videos on social media and YouTube expand the conversation. The documentary observes how she achieves a level of authority and becomes a talking head on the news. Her unapologetic pro-Palestinian stance and her emphasis on shared peace draws backlash and support with equal measure. The former has a bit more volume, though, which simply provides more material.

These achievements eventually put an email in Eliassi’s inbox. The folks at Harvard want her to do a residency that explores the possibility of co-existence. “Coexistence, my ass!” she replies. Eliassi gets the job, which brings her to Boston just in time to get COVID.

Director Amber Fares (Speed Sisters) follows Eliassi throughout the stages of her residency. The film takes a non-linear structure as Eliassi’s performance of Coexistence, My Ass! forms the spine of the film. She gives her routine to an attentive audience, delivering well-received zingers and reflecting upon personal growth during a tumultuous period. The film adopts a format akin to a lecture documentary as Eliassi’s comedic sketch offers a direct address vehicle comparable to An Inconvenient Truth and If You Love this Planet, if a much funnier one. Those docs were about climate change and nuclear war, respectively, but the humour doesn’t diminish this doc’s political power. If anything, it elevates it.

This film speaks from the heart. The direct address approach makes stirring appeals to both the heart and the head. All the while, Eliassi’s sense of humour, imbued with deprecating self-reflection, appeals to viewers on a personal level. What begins as a roast ends as a plea for peace.

Coexistence, My Ass! chronicles a political awakening as Fares uses the fractured chronology when the pandemic forces Eliassi back home. The comedian tests positive for COVID-19 when she lands in Israel and health officials quarantine her in a hospital for people with the virus. However, this quarantine-resort proves a microcosm of her native “Oasis of Peace.” Israelis and Palestinians cohabitate peacefully while surviving the quarantine. Differences fall by the wayside with the virus, at least within that confined space. Eliassi finds the experience inspiring.

However, tensions mount in the region in the ensuing years. Fares observes how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exploits the situation to call snap elections. His rolling corruption scandals accentuate the Israeli-Palestinian divide. Eliassi becomes more outspoken—fiercely so—but notices that her colleagues on the comedy circuit are going softer. Nobody wants to rock the boat while audiences deal with collective trauma. Sensing something in the air, Eliassi reverts to jokes about boyfriends and body hair. That’s about as far as she’s willing to push the envelope while addressing cultural divides.

Eliassi’s dissatisfaction with her apolitical humour gets rocked, though, with the events of October 7, 2023. Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam becomes a lightning rod amid the violence. Close neighbours turn against one another. Fierce protests erupt in the streets with Eliassi proudly going head-to-head with anti-Palestinian protesters. The reality on the ground doesn’t jive with milquetoast chuckles at the comedy clubs. For someone who once had a good laugh telling coexistence to shove it, Eliassi now finds the question no laughing matter.

As her understanding and articulation of the hope for peace between Palestine and Israel comes full circle, Coexistence, My Ass! addresses the hot-button topic of the moment with gravity and levity. She even goes beyond dropping an F-bomb and takes a step up to G, imploring people to consider the word “genocide.” Their laughter gives way to tears.

Premiering over a year after the events of October 7 and the escalating violence, Coexistence My Ass! offers perhaps the fullest consideration yet of this chapter of history in the making. There are extraordinary docs that precede or intersect with the current escalation, but the benefit of time and the personal reflection make this documentary essential viewing to understand what it means to assess a situation from a point of unease, rather than comfort. Laughter often proves the best medicine for uncomfortable situation. The film proves just what the doctor ordered.

Coexistence, My Ass! premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Pat Mullen is the publisher of POV Magazine. He holds a Master’s in Film Studies from Carleton University where his research focused on adaptation and Canadian cinema. Pat has also contributed to outlets including The Canadian Encyclopedia, Paste, That Shelf, Sharp, Xtra, and Complex. He is the vice president of the Toronto Film Critics Association and an international voter for the Golden Globe Awards.

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