In the mix of the various nations and divisions in the Near East, we may often hear of Kurds, but they always seem to be on the edge of the stories we hear. Since they don’t have their own nation, we only know them as minorities in countries like Iraq, Turkey and Iran. Many Kurds now live in diaspora throughout the world. Filmmaker Jay Jonroy’s David and Layla opens soon and brings to us a bit of the experience of Kurds living in new cultures.

In talking with Jonroy recently, I learned a great deal about the Kurdish experience. David and Layla tells the story of a Jewish man and Kurdish woman as they fall in love and negotiate the minefield of interfaith relationships. This is the kind of predicament that faces the Kurdish community. But for Jonroy, this is not so much a problem as something to be celebrated for the way people can find to overcome the differences that divide us.

A key theme in the film is tolerance. Jonroy notes that we are all related if we go back far enough. We all share things for which we can take pride in our heritage, and we all share suffering. The two lovers in the film have a playful competition comparing the great accomplishments of their heritage. No one has cornered the market on bragging—nor on suffering. It is as they share, they are able to understand each other better and open themselves to the differences.

Jonroy says that Kurds have a certain affinity for tolerance. He points out that as history as worked out, the Kurds have had to deal with many different cultures—such as Turks and Arabs. Their own culture was somewhat protected by the mountains that make up the Kurdish areas. Those mountains protected them from those who would impose other ways upon them. Because of this, he says, it used to be that there were often more churches and Jewish temples in Kurdish towns than there were mosques. It is only recently that the surrounding cultures have made inroads to the Kurdish areas and began to force changes on the Kurdish way of life.

Jonroy holds out a hope that people of different cultures and faiths can find common ground and come together. In part that hope grows from his heritage among a people who have always been on the edge of the cultures around them, but have learned to maintain their identity as they meet the changing world around them.