An eclectic group of passengers riding a tram that traverses the length of Jerusalem populates the succession of vignettes that make up writer-director Amos Gitai’s film, which is sometimes merely amiable but nonetheless carries his usual warning about the dangerous divide in Israeli society. That message is delivered in several segments in which the treatment accorded people by a security guard depends on their ethnicity—in one, he hassles a Palestinian girl over her foreign passport while ignoring the same problem with the Jewish girl standing beside her, and in another, he wrestles a Palestinian man to the floor after a woman accuses him wrongly of harassment.
Other sketches play humorously with stereotypes, as when the newly-appointed European coach of a local soccer team finds it impossible to get a word in edgewise when his voluble Israeli assistant insists on answering every question posed by a reporter, or an overbearing Jewish mother complains to everyone within earshot about the son sitting next to her, who is nearing thirty but still unmarried; the off-screen responses are amusing. She also chides a nearby Yeshiva student about why he insists on studying the Torah while traveling instead of observing the world as it flashes by.
In other episodes, a couple recognizes a radical talk show host, who responds by reading an encomium on Trotsky he has written, while a rabbi discourses learnedly on the meaning of a Scriptural passage to his students. Elsewhere two young women confide in one another about romantic relationships that have a mercenary aspect, and a departing Israeli soldier shares a tearful goodbye with his girlfriend, while a disheveled priest babbles on in Italian about sin and corruption as others look on uncomprehendingly.
Probably the best-known member of the cast, at least internationally, is Mathieu Amalric, who points out the beauty of the passing city to his young son Elias while reading aloud passages from Flaubert about his visit there in 1850. He also has an encounter with a young couple that leads them to challenge whether he sufficiently admires the Israeli military, though whether they are serious or putting him on is a question. Mathieu and Elias are featured again in one of several musical interludes, listening raptly to a roving man who hums along as he plays a tune on a cümbüş.
The film begins with a woman singing Mozart’s “Aveverum corpus,” and later a Palestinian rapper and a Hassidic chorus appear. A Tramway in Jerusalem makes for a fairly engaging journey, though as social commentary it does not dig very deep. More cutting is Gitai’s short film Letter to a Friend in Gaza (35 min.) included as a bonus, which employs readings from a text by Albert Camus as a commentary on the tragic confrontation between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers in Gaza. Though some parts are more compelling than others, this disc may be considered a strong optional purchase.