Paradise Now

 

 

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This film is amazing! It's romantic, serious and funny all at the same time. I saw it when it came out and every person i recommended it to has fallen in love with it. Excellent excellent excellent film!!!

Watch it! Talk about it...You'll enjoy it and it will open your eyes in ways you never thought possible :-)

Although my mother would certainly debate the point, acknowledging a political view is not the same thing as endorsing it. So I do not think finding "Paradise Now" to be provocative or compelling constitutes a political position that needs to be articulated or defended. Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) are a pair of Palestinians living in the West Bank. They work together at a garage and are best friends. In response to an Israeli attack, the Palestinian organization to which they belong has decided to retaliate and set up their first mission in two years. Said and Khaled will be sent to Tel Aviv as suicide bombers, using the technique that we have become familiar with from the news: the first bomb will go off and when the rescuers arrive to deal with the dead and dying the second bomb will detonate.

Said and Khaled spend a last night with their families, who do not have any idea what will be happening the next day. The two men are shaved, given haircuts and new suits, so that they can blend in with their intended victims. But when they film their final statements of martyrdom there are problems with the video camera. What follows is not really a comedy of errors, because there is nothing funny about suicide bombers, but director Hany Abu-Assad ("Al Qods Fee Yom Akhar") has a definite sense of irony. The last statements of martyrs are not expected to include shopping tips (to be clear, this is not a funny moment, but rather one that recognizes what strange thoughts go through the mind of someone who is about to go out into the world and blow himself up).

The problems with the videotape are a harbinger of what is to come, as the detailed plan gets off track. Said and Khaled become separated, and the plan that has been put into place is not exactly full of contingencies. However, the extra time gives both men a chance to have second thoughts, each going in a decidedly different direction. This gives the film, co-written by Abu-Assad and his partner Bero Beyer, and opportunity to present different points of views on why a group engages in suicide bombings and why the practice will not result in the desired changes. Jamal (Amer Hiehel) is the brains behind the operation, while Suha (Lubna Azabal) represents what we would think of as being the voice of reason in the film. But there are reasons on both sides and a reasonable assumption is that viewers have already made their minds up on this issue before they even sit down and watch "Paradise Now."

When things go wrong with the plan there is a sense in which this 2005 film starts to become a thriller. Granted, one of the questions is clearly whether or not these human bombs are going to go off. But "Paradise Now" is not trying to be a thriller. Instead it is finding space between the decision and the act to reconsider both. I have been thinking over whether the fade from the final shot of the film is a poetic touch by Abu-Assad or an effort at ambiguity. At this point I am inclined to go with the former, especially since I have little doubt that viewers will impose their own ideology when deciding to solve the apparent ambiguity. This is not a movie that is trying to change the minds of its viewers, just one that is trying to get them to see things from a different perspective. Ultimately, that is what may well prove more disquieting than the thought of seeing bombs going off.

Seeing this film a second time, I found it more powerful and more disturbing. I had read the script, and pictured the two leads played by much younger people, which I imagined would give the film a deep sense of the tragedy of the loss of innocence. So I was disappointed when I first saw the finished project.

But that's not a fair way to judge a film. What's important is what's on the screen, not what's pre-conceived in your head, and this time I could appreciate it for the excellent, intelligent, emotionally and morally complex and challenging film it is. Any film that can make suicide bombers 'human', without justifying their actions, or can really make you understand the roots of violence and terrorism without condoning for a moment it is an important film for the modern world, and an important film to see.

Beyond that, its finely crafted, with terrific performances, and directed to create amazing levels of tension, without feeling manipulative.

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