Serving Bread

Paradise Now
Directed by: Hany Abu-Assad
Year: 2005
Length: 91 minutes
[rating:4]

This film was nominated (with controversy) for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, submitted from “the Palestinian Territories”. It is the story of two friends who find themselves recruited to be suicide bombers in Israel. The movie explores their friendship, their motivations and hesitations to be martyrs for the Palestinian cause.

The film focuses on these two friends who are trying to figure out their purpose on being martyrs. While these men are considered “heroes” by many Palestinians, the film reveals that these heroes are not necessarily the bold men who are more than willing to carry out the attacks. And unlike the way that the media may portray suicide bombers, they are not “losers” who have found no purpose to life but to blow themselves up. Dare I say, they are likeable characters who have chosen to believe the deception that the afterlife for a martyr is better than the hell they live in.

During one scene in the movie, when the two friends are en route for their mission, they ask their handler what will happen to them when they die. The handler replies, “You will be met by angels.” One of the would-be suicide bomber asks him, “Are you sure?” And to that, the handler responds, “I’m 100% sure.” These men are products of an Islamic theological bent, but they are in now way experts who understand their theology fully. They reassure themselves with bumper sticker lines like, “death is better than humiliation”.

I recommend this movie, especially since it was produced by a Palestinian director. Generally, I’m not a fan of movies that are the stereotypical movie of that country or culture (for example, a Jew producing a Holocaust movie, Armenians producing genocide movies, etc… While there is a place for those movies and who better to produce them than those who have the most passion for those movies, I would encourage film-makers to go beyond the stereotypical exports), but this is an important film that highlights the plight of the Palestinians.

The reason I gave it short of 5 stars was because I think the film could have done a little more with some of the supporting characters like Suha, and perhaps focus a little more on the culture of martyrdom. Still, it’s a fantastic film! The film is in Arabic, so be prepared to read the subtitles.