Fares’ film is a remarkable snapshot of the twists and turns marking contemporary experiences of the Middle East.
This is one in a series of film reviews from the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, focused on films by women, trans or nonbinary directors that tell compelling stories about the lives of women and girls.
Two scenes in particular stand out among the many striking contrasts in Coexistence, My Ass!, which received a World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression at Sundance this year and chronicles five years in the life and work of activist and standup comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi.
In the first, Shuster-Eliassi returns to Israel at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic after a stint performing standup in the United States. Diagnosed with COVID on her arrival, she’s shuttled off to quarantine at the so-nicknamed “Hotel Corona.” Contrary to the fatalism many felt at the start of the pandemic, Shuster-Eliassi, phone camera running, is buoyed by the ambience at the hotel: Jews, Arabs and Christians all “radically getting along” at what seems like a 24/7 party as they all await clean bills of health.
In the second, three years later and in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on the Gaza strip, Shuster-Eliassi is in despair. People she knows are missing or dead. Will the dream—even though it’s always been fraught and fractured—of peace in the Middle East that’s been the foundation of her life and work ever be possible?
Growing up as a self-defined “poster child” for peace, Shuster-Eliassi has a unique and refreshing perspective, punctuated by her standout irreverent humor. Born to Romanian and Iranian Jewish parents, Shuster-Eliassi grew up in the Oasis of Peace, also known as Neve Shalom (in Hebrew) and Wahat al-Sallam (in Arabic), a social experiment in the form of a small village where Palestinians and Jews live intentionally as neighbors, and their children attend a bilingual school where they take classes on peacebuilding. Subsequently, Shuster-Eliassi grew up speaking Hebrew, Arabic and English, frequently appearing in news footage and at publicity events for the many celebrities and politicians who visited Oasis of Peace to see its radical approach to unity and peace in action.
At 21, Shuster-Eliassi received a scholarship for her peace activism to attend Brandeis University; at 25, she was hired by the United Nations. In 2019, she was invited as a fellow of the Religion, Conflict and Peace Initiative at Harvard Divinity School, where she began to work on her one-woman show, Coexistence, My Ass! That’s where documentary director Amber Fares begins chronicling Shuster-Eliassi’s work, although the film incorporates news footage, social media posts and Shuster-Eliassi’s own reflections to cover the entire span of her life so far.
But Coexistence, My Ass! is far from a myopic biography of one activist comedian; instead, it becomes something much more expansive. The film encapsulates the deep complexities, horrors and challenges of the crisis in the Middle East and the conundrums of peacebuilding facing its many interlocuters without coming across as either naïve or completely hopeless.
Coexistence, My Ass! is fascinating in part because of Shuster-Eliassi’s singular perspective on the conflict, one inflected by her dedication to social justice, her unparalleled humor, and her ability to connect with people with very different backgrounds from her own. It’s also a captivating example of the twin pleasures and risks of documentary filmmaking: its unpredictability.
In the wake of Hamas’ attacks and all that comes after, Shuster-Eliassi wonders about the viability of peace as the dream of coexistence has begun to crumble even among the remaining residents of the Oasis of Peace. She begins the film in a state of flippant joy and ends it troubled and frustrated, but her spirit, her hope and her drive remain unadulterated.
Reflecting on Shuster-Eliassi’s background and formative experiences alongside her journey to create a one-woman show, her subsequent performances, and her activism both online and at protests in the streets of Jerusalem, Fares’ film is a remarkable snapshot of the twists and turns marking contemporary experiences of the Middle East.
