“Well I think I could be the loneliest girl in the world.” The movie Atomic Falafel opens with these lyrics, sung over the strumming of a bright ukulele.
Is the movie about divorce, or widowhood, or isolation? No, Atomic Falafel is about two communities battling nuclear war, Israel, and Iran.
While the movie is not about isolation or loneliness, the bright music continues, as Atomic Falafel, a movie about nuclear war, is strangely a comedy.
Atomic Falafel’s soundtrack of beachy guitar tunes accompanies the comedy and compliments the action. Dark humor of course is employed, but so is slapstick. Watermelons are thrown across the world at foreign diplomats. At one point a religious Jewish “mohel” is called in to perform a circumcision on a grown man.
While nuclear war is a serious topic, Atomic Falafel first lightens the subject with comedy, reaching even more topics that could make a viewer blush besides circumcision. Atomic Falafel is certainly not afraid to offend. A mother is declared to be a slut. A German professional is referred to as a “Nazi.” A Facebook insult of a sexual nature is slurred against a main character. Wit is employed across multiple languages, including Arabic and Farsi, which are interchanged with Hebrew and English in as fast a pace as the movie moves.
After lightening the subject of nuclear war with comedy, Atomic Falafel ingeniously incorporates a larger message of peace. The character’s lives, the languages they speak in common, are intertwined with meaningful comments about the lingering effects of World War II, and the hope of a new generation “connected by technology.” Indeed, a few main characters, 15-year-old teenagers from Israel and Iran meet as strangers on the internet before helping each other with homework. They compliment each other on their looks, their singing talents.
Atomic Falafel is a comedy that addresses serious issues and makes them easily more digestible than a falafel to a German visitor. Overall, the message of peace demonstrates that the light-hearted and ingeniously executed comedy of the writers and actors is more than just for laughing for the sake of laughing – it is a tool for a message of peace, one that could be taken, in fact, very seriously.
