After having its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression, the documentary “Coexistence, My Ass!” by Amber Fares has been presented at the 43° Torino Film Festival before landing italian cinemas at the beginning of 2026, distributed by Wanted

The film follows Israeli activist and performer Noam Shuster Eliassi as she creates a comedy show by the same name. Filmed over the course of five tumultuous years, it traces Noam’s personal, professional and political journey.

Amber Fares lived in the West Bank while she was making the documentary “Speed Sisters“. It was then that she met Noam Shuster in a bar in Ramallah with her Palestinian friends.

The director started filming with Noam in 2019 when she moved to Boston to build her one-woman show at Harvard and followed her journey along 5 years, as it took many surprising turns since then, as has our world.  She’s had to navigate growing attacks on dissent from her own society, and of course the near-total destruction of Gaza.

The film is composed by scenes of Noam’s participation to protests as a political activist and extracts from her path and her mission as a stand up comedian with a very clear mission. Amber Fares explains how she balanced and intertwined these two aspects in the film.

The documentary places significant emphasis on the phrase “Coexistence, My Ass!”  as a provocative statement against false notions of harmony in conflict zones. It showcases Noah’s efforts to use comedy and activism to confront stereotypes and injustices. The film proves that beneath the surface of political tension, there are rich personal lives and voices that often go unheard, emphasizing that true coexistence requires genuine understanding and engagement rather than superficial agreements.

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