It’s never fun to be picked on; It’s even less fun to when you're a kid getting picked on for no reason. Now, take all that bullying and imagine you're part of a small Arab community living in Israel in the '80s;this is the fate of Eyad, the young protagonist in Eran Riklis' wonderfully delicate and thought provoking A Borrowed Identity.

Eyad is given a chance to attend a prestigious Jewish boarding school in Jerusalem, the first and only Arab to be accepted. Being an outsider, he desperately tries to fit in with his Jewish schoolmates and the Israeli society. Eyad develops a friendship with Jonathan, a boy suffering from muscular dystrophy, gradually becoming part of his family.

But when Eyad falls in love with a Jewish girl named Naomi, he is asked to leave the school when their relationship is uncovered. Eyad realizes he will have to sacrifice his own identity in order to be accepted. Faced with a choice, Eyad is forced to make a decision that will change his life forever.