Paradise Now: Movie & DVD Review (2006)

(Originally published 2006)

Hany Abu-Assad's "Paradise Now," nominated Sunday night for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, follows two Palestinian men who believe they are called upon by God to strap bombs to their bodies, travel to Tel Aviv, and then move into a crowded area, where they will detonate those bombs in two separate suicide attacks.

The men are told by one of the organizers, Jamal (Amer Hlehel), that the first bombing will take out a smaller number of civilians and soldiers. But not to worry. Fifteen minutes later, when the bloodshed generates pandemonium and more soldiers and people descend upon the chaos, the second man will blow himself up in the center of it, which will create more death and make for the sort of political statement that tends to generate worldwide attention.

As they see it, neither Said (Kais Nashef) nor Khaled (Ali Suliman)--lifelong friends struggling to find meaning in their lives--has to worry about the implications of their actions. There is no shame, evil or disgrace in this. They consider their selection as martyrs to be an honor. They believe this is their calling to heaven.

Trouble is, when Suha (Lubna Azabal), their friend and the daughter of the revered revolutionary spearheading the attacks, gets wind of what Said and Khaled are about to do, her staunch opposition to her father's ideologies and methodologies begins to raise its share of questions within them.

Are they indeed doing the right thing? Is martyrdom the answer to solving the conflict between Israel and Palestine? What will change should they take their lives and the lives of others? Is being considered a hero enough, even for two men who feel as though they are prisoners in occupied Nablus and have few options for a better life?

As written by Bero Beyer and the Netherlands-based Abu-Assad, "Paradise Now" offers no easy answers. Much of its power comes by not portraying Said and Khaled as unstable men eager to pull the trigger, but as otherwise ordinary men who believe their way is the only way.

At first, it's Khaled who is the more gung-ho of the two; Said seems to be wavering, his eyes failing to conceal his indecision, particularly when he's in the presence of his mother (Hiam Abbass), who senses something is up. But when the film gets down to it and the bombs are strapped to their bodies, the dynamic shifts. Said becomes resolute while Khaled begins to wonder whether Suha is right. The rest of the plot won't be discussed here, but the complications of what unfolds can be excruciatingly intense.

Filmed on location in the West Bank by an international crew that included Israelis and Palestinians, "Paradise Now" isn't a perfect film--the occasional contrivance undermines it--but it's nevertheless a perfectly gripping, brave and timely film. It takes a slice of what plays out nightly on the evening news, and puts a human face to it. Some won't want to look into that face--to see the humanity behind the inhumanity--but there it is, and so the discussion deepens about the Middle-East.

Grade: A-