Our mission: Do you agree more with the petition to have the film removed as an award nominee or with the counter-petition? What are you reasons for favoring one side over the other?
Wow. I certainly sat down to watch this film with my own set of biases: suicide bombers are crazy, wild-eyed fanatics who look for glory in the hereafter in the form of seven virgins and will destroy everyone around them without any regard for human life. They are devoid of the necessary skills of logic or reasoning and cannot be viewed with any sympathy.
Does it ‘glorify Palestinian suicide bombers’? Absolutely not. Should we really turn our heads the other way because ‘..we don’t need to understand it. We don’t need to excuse it’? (Arab-American peace activist Nonie Darwish, via Aljazeera.net) Again, absolutely not.
I am one of the most tree-hugging, vegetarian pacifists that you will ever meet, but I do not agree with the idea that this film should have been removed from the list of award nominees. It was tragic that that Asaf – Yossi Zur’s son died in a suicide bomb attack, but are we to ignore the history and reasons behind what drove these actions? This film doesn’t seek to sanction the actions of the bombers, it seeks to show a side with which we may not be familiar, and it deserved recognition for its honest look at what drives suicide bombers to action. It reveals the anguish and frustration of the inhabitants of the West Bank under the occupation of Israel. It reveals the trappings and failings of human life and lives lived in despair. We can’t ignore history because it is uncomfortable or painful.
Paradise Now invites us to look at the lives of Said and Khaled, friends who work together as auto mechanics in Nablus. Opening with a Cheech and Chong rip-off opening, Said seems to be the more reserved, reflective of the two, while Khaled seems to be the impulsive trouble-maker. We see that Said suffers the humiliation of having had a father who was a “collaborator” when a patron of the restaurant suggests ‘tearing apart’ all collaborators and their families by dragging them through the streets.
Jamal requests retribution for an unseen character, as Said and Khaled have been chosen for the mission. Jamal does a great job of impersonating a pyramid salesman indoctrinating a new salesman to invest in the product, spewing his propaganda at every turn. I thought Said saw through it, but was going through with his duty, and that Khaled was in hook, line and sinker. After their Last Supper, they head out.
After things go wrong, we see Suha again, Said’s customer/love interest, who seems to speak for the world when she exasperatedly asks ‘is there no other way to resolve this?’ I noticed in this sequence, the film seemed to explore the question, “What if we could pause real life?” as the characters explore their options and delve into their own rationale for their actions. Suha smacks Khaled and says ‘Paradise is in your head’, but the irony is that paradise is actually in Tel Aviv. I was astonished at the vast difference between Nablus, West Bank, a virtual wasteland, and Tel Aviv, Israel, which looked like Paris, France or Manhattan, New York, with its high-rises, trendy shops and smartly-dressed inhabitants. Of course the Palestinians have every right to the same freedoms the Israelis enjoy. Why should they need a work permit, or have to suffer road blocks/checks and the threat of the military shooting them down? They are living under ‘house arrest’ and it seems insane.
In the end, their roles are reversed as Khaled changes his mind and abandons the mission and Said gets on the bus. As the screen goes white, we see that Said feels he is left with no choice: without hope for the future, he sees no reason to go on, or to allow the status quo to continue.
4 comments:
"suicide bombers are crazy, wild-eyed fanatics who look for glory in the hereafter in the form of seven virgins and will destroy everyone around them without any regard for human life. They are devoid of the necessary skills of logic or reasoning and cannot be viewed with any sympathy."
Rosemary, your "set of biases" is mine as well (you describe them very well) and I was glad for the better, truer understanding that I now have of what I always viewed as a ridiculously waste of human life. Good post!
I wonder how many of the folks who choose to be martyrs are simply clinically depressed? Life is meaningless to someone in that state of mind...
Good post Rosemary. You expressed some interesting points and I have been appreciative of the different angles that we all view these films with. Keep up the thoughtful posts.
I enjoy reading your writing. Maybe it's because you're a tree-hugging, vegetarian pacifist ;-)
Some of these films have transformed us as much as they've transformed the characters.
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