text: When Egypt was Israel's worst enemy, an Egyptian film was screened weekly on the Israeli TV. So many people in the country still wax nostalgic about that old Friday night ritual back in the times when television had just one channel. Everyone would watch the Arabic Movie of the Week, but did anybody ever wonder how Israel’s official TV station was able to transcend hostile boundaries to obtain these films, and why it insisted on showing movies made by “the enemy”? The Arabic-language movie from Egypt let some of us escape back to our childhood homes and let others peek out from our “villa in the jungle” and catch a glimpse at our neighbors across the border. But most of us didn’t really want to see those people, whose culture, anguish, and aspirations flickered on our screens. “Arabic Movie” brings us the stars and the songs, the convoluted plots, and that fleeting moment, when we shared the same cultural heroes as everyone else in the Middle East. But this film about the richness and intensity of Egyptian cinema also raises some disturbing questions.