Andrew (aindreas) wrote in linguaphiles,
Andrew
aindreas
linguaphiles

Arabic in Prisoners of War

Recently I've been watching Prisoners of War, Hatufim, subtitled in English and have a questions about the use of Arabic in the show for any Hebrew/Arabic speakers who have also seen in. This is going to seem pretty dumb, but I speak zero Arabic and only know key phrases in Hebrew, and at times I can't distinguish the two languages if only short sentences are exchanged, and the dialogue isn't extended.

The English subtitles don't indicate when the language changes, and I'm confused as to whether the two main Jewish characters, Nimrode and Uri, speak Arabic. There was a scene where Uri seemed to be speaking in halting Arabic to a Palestinian family, and Nimrode received a call where I thought the girl on the other end was speaking Arabic, but there have also been other indications that they don't speak it ...? In the flashback scenes, I'm also unsure if the captors are speaking exclusively Arabic to the hostages.

I'm just coming to the end of season 1, so if you've seen the show and can clarify the linguistic relationships here without giving anything away, that'd would be great. Thanks for your help.
Tags: arabic, hebrew
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