The Israeli Film Festival is this year spreading projections further than the main diaspora cities of Melbourne and Sydney with screenings in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Choose wisely, Israeli flicks are a depressive bunch.

So commonly the holy land's films relate to grim matter such as stories of military life, fleeing the old country and youth coming of age in the new Israel. Perhaps these stories have now already told enough and it's a sign of the expanding film festival that movies such as Metallic Blues, Out Of The Blue and Melting Away are showing - 3/3 of these films are deranged comedies. So too is The Other Son, a film that manages to achieve the rare accomplishment of being equal part comedy and depressing drama.

Get this, a young fella is preparing to enter his military service when blood tests show the people he grow up with aren't really his parents. Swapped at birth he finds out he's actually a Muslim from the West Bank and that of course means there's also a Jewish boy that's grown up on the wrong side. Ooops. Should you laugh or cry? Well you decide because there are plenty of choices for you to do both in The Other Son and the entire festival itself. Check out the full schedule here.

At Palace cinemas, Brisbane

Opens Wed Aug 29 

WIN 
Thanks to Think Tank, we have 10 dbls to giveaway! To enter, email brisbane.win@thethousands.com.au with the subject ‘switched at birth’