PLOT: Two Palestinian mechanics, friends since childhood, are chosen for a suicide mission in Tel Aviv. An emotional and political no-man's land for sure, and a stunning film about belief, motivation and desperation. Rather more heartbreaking than controversial.
Said and Khaled have known each other all their lives. Now they will die together, too.
Paradise Now is the story of how two Palestinian men spend the last 48 hours of their lives before a suicide mission in Tel Aviv.
Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) work as mechanics and live in poverty in the West Bank city of Nablus. One day, their colleague Jamal informs them that they have been chosen to become martyrs for the cause.
They are pleased to have been chosen. The men go home for what they know will be their last night with their families. The next day they make farewell videos for their families; the camera doesn't work at one point and at another, one of the men interrupts his message to remind his mother where she should buy water filters. Then the men share the sandwiches made for Khaled by his mother. It's all fairly matter-of-fact and completely heartbreaking.
Khaled and Said are never entirely sure that what they are doing is the right thing. Their handlers seem brisk, manipulative and embarrassed by the religious nature of the men's questions. At any rate, the two step through a security fence to begin their mission, but things go awry.
Said and Khaled are separated. Only one of them goes ahead into Tel Aviv.
The human focus on these two men permits Paradise Now to present a dark and controversial subject in a fashion that may surprise you. The film does not invite you to root for either side of the conflict, just to see these guys as human. It is almost impossible not to empathize with their intense personal struggle.
(Politically, the strongest statement made by the filmmaker may be the simple visual contrast between Nablus, which is a war-torn ruin, and Tel Aviv, which is presented as sunny and prosperous.)
Bizarrely, Paradise Now is currently being shown in Israel and is even screened three times a day at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. The film, which was partly filmed in Nablus until conditions there became too dangerous, was also shot in Nazareth and Tel Aviv. It involved a Palestinian director and an Israeli producer, as well as producers from Germany, Holland and France. The crew included both Israelis and Palestinians. As the director has said, "If you see the film, it's fairly obvious that it does not condone the taking of lives."
Paradise Now has already won numerous awards, including the 2005 Amnesty International Award.
BOTTOM LINE: "Every day in the newspapers we hear of these attacks. It is such an extreme act that I began to think, like everyone, how could someone do that -- what could drive them to it? I realized that we never hear the whole story. How could they justify this? Not only to their families but also to themselves. However you may feel, there is a reason." Paradise Now director Hany-Abu-Assad.
(This film is rated PG)
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