Terrorism's Human Face
Paradise Now - Warner Home Video - 90 minutes - 2005
by David Krusch
Is it possible to shoot
a film about the human side of the terrorist mind and heart without asking audiences to
sympathize with the perpetrators who will
ultimately murder innocent civilians? Hany
Abu-Assad, the Israeli-born
Arab director of Paradise
Now, leaves this and other politically-charged
questions up to the audience in this
riveting drama about the
quest of two Palestinian suicide
bombers who attempt to carry out terrorist
attacks in Tel
Aviv.
Abu-Assad illustrates the
twisted logic and strategic planning that
Palestinian terrorists put into each mission
to kill Israelis, but at the same time depicts
his characters as complete, emotional
human beings. In one interview, he states,
“The film is simply meant to open a
discussion, hopefully, a meaningful discussion,
about the real issues at hand. I hope that
the film will succeed in stimulating thought.
If you see the film, it's fairly obvious
that it does not condone the taking of
lives.” Abu-Assad
is also predicting that he will upset some
Israeli and Jewish groups for humanizing
terrorism, but says that he too is critical
of suicide bombers and the murders they
commit. Politics aside, if you view Paradise
Now as a work of art with a message,
then it’s a beautifully shot, cleverly
scripted, and emotionally acted film,
fully deserving of its international acclaim.
The film centers around the lives of
Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), who have
been best friends since early childhood. In the beginning
of the film, they are shown going through the motions
of a typical mundane day in the West
Bank city of Nablus:
working dead-end jobs as mechanics, smoking hookah,
and drinking tea. Their lives are unspectacular and
lack purpose and meaning. While working on cars, Said
meets Suha (Lubna Azabal), a startingly beautiful woman
who captures his attention and breaks the monotony of
his everyday life. Then, suddenly, everything in their
lives change forever.
The director purposefully
leaves out the fact that Said and Khaled
also belong to an unnamed Palestinian terrorist
cell in Nablus, which becomes fully apparent
when they are confronted by the cell's leaders,
and told that they both have been chosen
to carry out terrorist bombings in Tel Aviv.
They have been chosen as a team because
it had been their dream as children to “die
together as martyrs,” side
by side. Said is approached by the middle-aged
Jamal (Amer Hlehel), the go-between for
the terrorist cell, and told that he and
Khaled have been chosen to execute the group's
first major attack in two years. Jamal tells
him that he can spend his last night alive
at home, with Jamal's accompaniment, as
long as he and Khaled keep their mission
secret from their families. Said sneaks
out of his house to see Suha one last time
to say goodbye. This encounter with Suha
sheds some light on Said's doubts.
The following day, the day
the bombings are supposed to take place,
Said and Khaled are led to the Security
Fence that separates the West Bank from Israel proper. They climb through a hole that was
cut for them by cell members on the Israeli
side of the fence. The Israeli
Army intercepts them, and they are forced
back through the Fence. The plan goes wrong
when the two are separated and the doubt-ridden
Said runs away to Nablus to hide from the
cell, still wearing his bomb-belt on his
torso. After much frantic searching for Said,
Khaled finally finds him at his father's
grave, and they agree to go through with
the operation. As is revealed by Said to
one of the cell's leaders, Said's father
was executed when he was 10 years old because
he was a “collaborator”
with the Israelis. It is now up to Said to
restore honor upon his family's name. The
plot's twists and turns, and Said and Khaled's
real doubts about murder, leave the audience
wondering if they will ultimately carry
out the deed.
Some of the film's most
intense (and humorous) moments came in the
filming of Said and Khaled's “martyr
declarations” at the cell's headquarters,
where they stated on camera while holding
a gun why they were becoming suicide bombers
(the gun held in the scene was a real gun
borrowed from a Palestinian terrorist group).
In preparation of these filmed declarations,
both men were washed, shaven, and dressed
in white robes. The bombs are placed in belts
and strapped onto their bodies. Eager to
carry out his assignment, Khaled gave a chilling
and emotional speech about why he is avenging
the Palestinian people of the daily injustices
they face under a “brutal
Israeli occupation.” After
he completes his declaration, Jamal tells
him he has to start again because the camera
was malfunctioning and would not record.
His second and third takes are far less emotional,
and he finally gives up and simply tells
his mother on camera where to buy cheaper water filters. Abu-Assad said of this scene: “The
scene catches the heart of the film's idea
by simultaneously breaking down the martyrdom-heroism
as well as the monster-evil and making it
human. And humans are often quite banal,
but also funny and emotional. In real life
there often is comedy in the most tragic
moments.”
This scene also contained
more symbolism than any other point of the
film. Flanked by organizers and other cell
members, Khaled and Said are given a final
meal that resembles Leonardo
Da Vinci's Last Supper.
Obviously, this symbolic dinner was only
foreshadowing for the death and destruction
that would inevitably follow the duel bombings
in Tel Aviv, and paints Said and Khaled
as “martyrs.”
Aside from the contoversial
plot and social-political questions that
will certainly arise from the film, the
actual shooting and production was in itself
a harrowing experience. The film was shot
entirely in Nablus, Nazareth,
and Tel Aviv in 2004, and the film crew
and the actors were often right in the
middle of the violence of the intifada.
According to Abu-Assad, everyday the IDF
would enter Nablus in search of wanted Palestinian
terrorists, which would inevitably be followed
by rocket attacks and gunfire from all directions.
To make matters worse, the only way to actually
shoot a film in Nablus about suicide bombers
was to have the approval of the rival armed
Palestinian gangs in the area, and sometimes
approval by one group was countered by
the disapproval of another. There were rumors
that the film was anti-suicide bombing,
which even led to the kipnapping of one of
the film's onsite location managers.
The violence got so bad
that several members of the film crew quit
the film and left Nablus to go back to Europe.
According to Abu-Assad, “I decided
to contact Prime Minister Yasser
Arafat, although I'd never met him.
I knew for a fact that Arafat had never
visited a cinema, however, he did help
us obtain the release of our location manager
who was returned two hours later.” One
time during film production, a land mine
exploded 300 yards from the scene, causing
Lubna Azabal to faint from fear. Abu-Assad
admits that, “We took these ridiculous
risks to make sure the film would be as
close to reality as possible and to have
an authentic look and feel.”
Paradise Now succeeded
in having an “authentic look and feel,” from
the scenes of the busy streets of Nablus
and Tel Aviv, to the real room where “martyr
declarations” had been filmed,
to the working gun used by Palestinians against
the Israeli Army that the character Khaled
held during his speech. Whereas the film
succeeded in achieving authenticity, it failed
in its mission to be a “bold
call for peace (from the film's tagline).” The
director, who says he is against suicide
bombings, presented no clear solutions on
how to solve the conflict, and never missed
an opportunity to bash
Israelis and their government's policies.
However, Paradise Now does open the door
for meaningful discussion of the issues
surrounding the conflict. It goes against
the grain of a commonly held Western notion
of suicide bombers — that they are
soulless and programmed to kill without
emotion or regret. Instead, Khaled and Said
are flesh-and-blood human beings, caught
in between religious extremism, nationalism,
and the will to live. Regardless of your
sympathies toward Israelis or Palestinians,
this film is an absolute must-see.
|