Theory of Conflict

When Sudanese "Lost Boy" Mohammed (Mo) Deng is dumped by his girlfriend of fourteen months, the resulting heartache opens up scabs of old wounds he thought had healed in time, in the ten years that he has been in America, after being rescued from the civil war in Sudan. On the other hand, when his best friend Edward Dudley falls in love with Yafit Abdeel, a former soldier of the Israel Defense Forces, his life will never remain the same again. Edward is well known as a playboy whose life is characterized by frivolous dating and casual sex, whereas Yafit grew up in a conservative home where sex comes only with marriage. As Mohammed's emotional life spirals down the rabbit hole, and Edward's heart is pulled apart in different directions, the two friends are caught up in the wave of a controversial event that is tearing their school apart. Conflict erupts on their campus as groups of students observe the year's "Israeli Apartheid Week", an annual exercise organized by pro-Palestinian teachers and students to protest events in the Middle East. For Edward, this becomes an opportunity to please a girl he's crazy about, and then maybe also to do something bigger than himself. Mohammed, however, seems to have no choices. As a popular peer tutor, he has befriended many students on campus, including several Jews and Arabs. Thus, he is an asset to the cause Edward is cooking up, and he feels that he can't let his best friend down. Yet his old wounds, sustained from the war that marred his childhood, are becoming as fresh as new.