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Arts & Entertainment
AT THE MOVIES
Pushing Past Stereotypes
Paradise Now offers a gripping look at
Palestinian suicide bombers.
Kasi Nashef as Said and Ali Suliman as Khaled, a pair of Palestinians
Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News
Lubna Azabel as Suha, a repre-
sentative of the new generation
of forceful outspoken Arab
women unwilling to accept that
death is the only path open to
young Palestinian men.
Paradise Now director
Hany Abu-Assad
any Abu-Assad's remark-
able drama, Paradise
Now, is a riveting explo-
ration of one of the key ques-
tions of our time:
What impels a per-
son to become a sui-
cide bomber?
The reader may
reasonably ask
another question:
Why on earth would
I pay to see a movie
about suicide
bombers?
To put it bluntly,
Paradise Now is
required viewing for
anyone who consid-
ers him or herself a
friend and support-
er of Israel. If that
sounds like a prescription for a
pedantic evening of being sub-
jected to hateful, hate-filled
characters, you're in for a sur-
prise.
An illuminating character
study and a breathless thriller,
Paradise Now is as engaging as it
is thought provoking. It is not
only the most important movie
of the year, but the most pas-
sionate, insightful and darkly
funny picture to hit theaters in a
long time.
Paradise Now is scheduled to
open Nov. 11 exclusively at the
Birmingham 8, and Nov. 18 in
Ann Arbor, at the Michigan
Theater. It expands to additional
theaters in the area on Nov. 23.
Desperate Measures
Shot in Nablus, Nazareth and Tel
Aviv, Paradise Now centers on
Said and Khaled, a pair of
Palestinians profoundly frus-
;IN
November 10 2005
trated by their lack of opportu-
nities.
They're at the bottom of the
food chain, scuffling as low-paid
auto mechanics forced to endure
the abusive complaints of
wealthy customers who are just
as powerless as they are.
Like Palestinian filmmaker
Elia Suleiman's profound and
sardonic Divine Intervention and
Chronicle of a Disappearance
(well worth seeking out on
DVD), Paradise Now illustrates
how depriving people of their
autonomy or authority eats away
at their self-respect.
Contrary to what we think we
know about potential suicide
commandos, Said and Khaled
aren't 18-year-old boys who've
been manipulated or brain-
washed by cynical fanatics. They
are men in their 20s who've
known for quite a while that
their possibilities in life are
acutely limited; they have con-
cluded that desperate measures
are the only way to end Israel's
occupation of the West Bank.
Informed on short notice that
they've been selected to carry
out a suicide operation, Said and
Khaled go about a series of ritu-
als — shaving, taping a video
message, spending their last
evening with unsuspecting fam-
ily members.
As if to underscore the frus-
tration of the Palestinians, noth-
ing goes quite as planned. The
video camera quits in the mid-
dle of Khaled's speech, in a bril-
liant sequence where the deadly
serious is derailed by absurdity.
At the appointed moment,
Said and Khaled slip through a
hole in the fence in broad day-
light and enter Israel. But an
unexpected hitch forces them to
abort the plan, and provides an
opportunity to reconsider the
profoundly frustrated by their lack of opportunities, in Paradise Now
wisdom and morality of sacri-
ficing their own lives — as well
as murdering innocent people.
New Generation
Paradise Now has plenty of
impassioned philosophical and
moral debate about the pros
and cons of suicide attacks, ini-
tiated by a pretty young woman
who's just returned to Nablus
after years of education in
Europe.
Suha represents the new gen-
eration of forceful, outspoken
Arab women who are unwilling
to accept that death is the only
path open to young Palestinian
men.
Said's mother, meanwhile,
knows more than she lets on but
says nothing. These people are
not religious fundamentalists,
nor do they praise Allah on an
hourly basis, but they accept
destiny and fate as legitimate
forces in their lives.
Abu-Assad, who also directed
the exceptional Rana's Wedding
and Ford Transit, is not interest-
ed in either message-laden
docudrama or artless neo-real-
ism.
With wit, intelligence and
unexpected artfulness, he push-
es past stereotypes and superfi-
cialities to probe a subject we'd
all prefer to avoid.
All he asks is that we take a
look. We decline at our own
peril. ❑
Paradise Now, rated PG-13,
opens Nov. 11, exclusively at
the Birmingham 8, and Nov.
18 in Ann Arbor, at the
Michigan Theater. It expands
to additional theaters in the
area on Nov. 23. Check your
local movie listings.
"It is not only the most
important movie of the year,
but the most passionate,
insightful and darkly funny
picture to hit theaters in a
long time."
— film reviewer Michael Fox
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