Customer Reviews

Paradise Now

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

As to the previous reviewer: you should not attack a film you have not seen...

In reality this movie does not glorify or demonize the two main characters. The central message of the movie is one of peace as transmitted through the only glorified character in the movie: the rational Suha who only wants peace. The film accurately depicts the state of utter desolation and poverty that Palestinians are living in today. I believe the movie is a great device whose purpose is to give the world another viewpoint on the psychology of many Palestinians and why suicide bombers exist at all.

I have just returned from watching "Paradise Now". Other reviewers have written much more fully about its plot, and so forth. I don't want to do that. I just want to say, in response to other viewers, and to those who may want to see the film or the video, that the claims that some reviewers make about the film--that it glorifies suicide bombings, that it is one-sided, that it condones violence--are utterly false. The film does not condone suicide bombings or anything of the sort. Rather, the film shows how such violence shatters worlds. What the film does is plunge the viewer into the midst of a situation most of us are aware exists, but know all too little about. The movie does so so vividly that you feel you are there, amidst the house-studded hillsides, ramshackle poverty, & isolated moments of beauty within Nablus. (I haven't been there, but apparently the movie was filmed largely in Nablus, until the danger of the situation forced filming to shift to Nazareth, so most of the footage of the city was indeed shot on location.) The movie is set in the Palestinian territories not as a slight to Israel, but rather because that is where suicide bombers happen to come from; it's a real place, even if nobody's been able to fit it politically onto the modern world-map. In my opinion, based on having just seen the movie, "Paradise Now" does *not* take sides, let alone in favor of suicide bombing, but rather presents a wide range of views about the conflict, with those of Suha, the young woman who argues most passionately against suicide bombings, specifically set up by the plot and the director so as to be at the forefront of the viewer's attention and sympathies. The movie is simply one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen. I recommend you see it as soon as possible if you have not done so already.

This is one of the most gripping movies I've seen recently. It has a feel of authenticity. "Paradise" addresses one of the most interesting of questions: what motivates people, be they Palestinian, Tamil or other, to sacrifice their lives for a cause.

Two young Palestinian men are called to honor their pledge to become suicide bombers. The movie depicts the squalidness of life in Israeli-occupied Palestine, the careful ritual of their preparation to die, the conflicting moments of doubt and certainty of the two men, and their journey to the location at which they will perform their act of protest. Perhaps the most effective scene in the movie shows them amidst the urban delights of Tel Aviv, so vastly different from the life they lead in a shabby ghetto only a few miles away. The only possible false note for me in the movie was the suggestion of Israeli collaborators with the suicide bombers. Is that plausible? I don't know.

The counterpoint to the suicide bombers is Suha, a young, sophisticated, and very appealing woman who argues eloquently against the rationale of suicide bombing. This is powerful stuff, unsullied by cheap propaganda, easy answers, or cinematic tricks. That the movie portrays the Palestinians in a sympathetic light could, I suppose, in the eyes of some be propagandistic. However, my cynical eye accepted the characterizations as credible.

"Paradise Now" is of Oscar quality for its originality, depth, and relevance.

In the movie Paradise Now, Saeed is asked to smile by a photographer. The photographer insists, Saeed persists in his refusal to smile. Meet Saeed, a young man living in Nablus in the occupied territories.

Ironically, Saeed means happy in Arabic.

While I spent time in occupied territories, I could always tell the difference between the locals and the foreigners. The ones the grew up there and the ones that were visiting. The local ones rarely, if ever smiled. The ones visiting from abroad smiled liberally, when greeting you, when saying goodbye, when talking about something funny and for no reason at all.

Then we meet Suha, she smiles lots. Guess what? ... she grew up in France. People are nice to her because she is the daughter of a martyr and a hero, also she is cute.

In a Hollywood movie, Suha would make Saeed smile by the end of the movie, at one point you think that surly the movie is going in that direction.

So many similarities with a Hollywood movie

There is a cute leading female.
Two guys dressed in a black suits, which reminded me of the Men In Black movie and the Blues Brothers movie.
Suspense.

One quarter into the movie the suspense was so high, that my friend who came to see the movie with me looked like she couldn't take it. I offered to hold her hand. For about five minutes we both forgot about the north American rule that females are not supposed to hold hands in public and behaved like we would in the middle east despite the fact that my friend is not middle eastern, we held hands. She looked at me and whispered, you must find this even more distressing than I do, I nodded with my head to say that I am ok. I wanted to tell her that everything in this movie is familiar, the language, the mentality, the way people talk, I have seen it all before, only in real life. It must be distressing to be exposed to all this within 15 minutes.

My favorite scene in the Blues Brothers is when they are going around looking for the other members of their band. They knock on a door and a lady with hair curlers opens the doors. She looks at the two men wearing black suits and asks them

lady in hair curlers: Are you guys with the FBI?
Blues Brothers: No Ma'am. We are on a mission from God. We are musicians.

That scene cracks me up each time I see it.

Saeed and his friend are not sure if they are on a mission from god or not. When they discuss the nature of their mission, they don't seem sure if god is behind it or not. You wish they were religious crazy fanatics on a mission from god ...... that is the lie that we have been told in western media, time and again ..... surprise! ...... they are not. Religion plays a role ..... but a very small role in the events that are about to take place.

Paradise Now is not a Hollywood movie

No happy ending
No violence
No car chase scene
No sex
One small brief episode of swearing and it is very brief indeed

As I watched the movie, I wished I could have reach out to Saeed to shake his shoulder. I wished I could tell him, "Saeed! you are young and beautiful, your whole life is ahead of you, don't throw it away". Suha tries hard to play the audience's voice in that movie. She even speaks Arabic with a funny accent to mark her foreignness and out-sidedness. She is treated with polite decorum, but nothing she says seems to address the realities on the ground. She is there in person, but far removed at the same time.

When the movie ended there was complete silence in the whole movie theater. You could have heard a pin drop. In most movies, you can hear the tidbits of conversation about the movie as you walk out. Again, as we walked out, there was complete and stunned silence. Nobody was saying anything, not even to their mobile phone. Everybody was completely and utterly stunned by the movie and so overwhelmed with what they just saw they were speechless.


In short, absolutely brilliant. If you are planning to see it, prepare to see a truly thought provoking movie that will rock your world.

Khaled and Said are young Palestinian men, best friends working at an auto repair shop in the West Bank. Khaled has anger issues, and faced with a bullying customer .. well, let's say he gets fired. Another customer is more friendly, Suha, a pretty young woman with a fondness for old cars and, seemingly, Said. That day, each of the two is approached by a separate man (Said's contact is Jamal, a leader; Khaled's is a less fully realized spear carrier) and told that the opportunity they have been waiting for, to become martyrs, is nigh. Tomorrow, they will enter Israel as suicide bombers.

We follow them and their escorts as they have a final night with their families. Said slips away to return her car keys to Suha; who invites him in and they spend the night talking and debating how to fight the occupation, Said from the perspective of living his whole life in the West Bank, Suha having returned from a life abroad to pursue non-violent resistance. The two martyrs then spend a day getting ready, fitted with suits, shaved and haircut, strapped with explosives and given their plan. They slip across the border, but something goes awry (through betrayal or just bad luck). Khaled rejoins with Jamal and the rest but Said is separated.

Jamal's group, fearing that Said is the traitor, abandons the house they had used for preparation, and an intense day is spent until Said and Khaled reconnect, involving Suha in the search. The two debate the wisdom of their course, with themselves, with each other and with Suha. As an altered plan is devised, and they take off again for their target, we are left wondering until near the very end (and even the end could be seen as ambiguous) who will back out and who will go through with the attack.

Although there is plenty of action and intrigue, it is subdued and realistic (not hypertrophied Hollywood style), and the focus is more the lives and thoughts of the characters. Not mindless religious fanatics, they are full of nuance and doubt, with views and actions stemming from their personal histories, and the three main characters -- Said, Khaled and Suha -- are eloquent and sincere in their debates. Kais Nashef as Said and Ali Suliman as Khaled are excellent and convincing, but the standout is Lubna Azabal as a fiery, determined Suha.

Many will object to any attempt to put a human face on what they see as irredeemably loathesome, but understanding need not be seen as forgiveness or approval. Though certainly sympathetic with the situation of the Palestinians, there is little if any demonization of the Israelis, either through action (the closest to atrocity or brutality is the sinister stare of the checkpoint guard as Suha's suitcase is inspected at the beginning of the film) nor in dialogue. This film should give pause for thought regardless of one's views on Middle East politics.

Paradise Now is one of the best movies to come out of the Middle East in a long time. Although it had been hyped up for me by friends of mine months before I actually saw it, the film far surpassed my expectations.

Not only was I surprised that Warner Bros. would put out a film about such a controversial subject, but the cinematography retained a certain "indie" quality that made it a pleasure to watch. The editing is absolutely superb, and you will probably sweat in your seat for the full 90 minutes of the film. The excellent production quality and tight suspense contrasts with the long-winded opus "Munich" by Spielberg, but both are good films in broaching the difficult topic of terrorism and retribution. I also recommend the Israeli movie "Cup Final" for a poignant look at Israelis and Palestinian guerrillas before the era of suicide bombing (which began 1993-94).

The political message of the movie is actually quite powerful, for those who can handle a little nuance. By showing a snapshot of the lives of two Palestinian men who decide to become suicide bombers, the film refuses to condemn them as nameless, faceless terrorists. Rather, it demonstrates the horrible political tragedy of which their decision is part and parcel. In the end, the film proves that they actually DO have a choice to contribute to the cycle of violence (or not). The film is not a documentary (although it was shot on location with Israeli Jews and Arabs), and so it fails to articulate a clear political alternative to the current situation. However, by illustrating in stark terms the agency of the characters involved and the difference that their choices make, it points the way toward an ethical rejection of the status quo (violence) in favor of an alternative future.

This Oscar-nominated film for best foreign movie depicts the dilemma of two suicide bombers who were assigned to the job, but were both hesitant to do what they were asked to do. The film is one of the rare voices of peace and moderation through which director Hany Abu-Assad sends several messages.
First, poverty is not the only reason behind this form of Palestinian violence. Suicide bombing is rather tied to a host of other sociocultural reasons. Along these lines, Abu-Assad presents a dialogue between two of his minor characters in which one of them says: "Look at Sweden, all people there are wealthy but it has the highest suicide rate in the world."
Second, through his female character Suha, the daughter of a late famous Palestinian leader, Abu-Assad denounces violence on the premise that violence would only bring further violence.
Third, one of the two suicide bombers put forward very personal reasons for his suicide action.
Fourth, Abu-Assad very smartly creates the picture of the junior Palestinian leadership that is mostly on the run and that is believed to be behind the planning and execution of suicide operations. In this film, the leader who is on the run looks very unstable, shaky and nervous, in a clear indication that such leaders are not all of the time operating in their full mental capacity.

This movie deserved the praise it has gotten and especially the Golden Globe for best foreign language film. I have rarely sat through a movie that sent so many conflicting emotions through me. You feel angry, sad, curious and even hopeful all throughout. Few films I've seen have been able to elicit all of these emotions in me. The issue is did the director truly capture genuine feelings of those who have undertaken this "path to martyrdom?" Does Abu-Assad even make the main characters too complex? Well maybe suicide bombers are not that multifaceted; I agree that they probably don't care if they hurt a soldier or a child. But he seems to have taken the different feelings of many Palestinians in regard to resistance and embodied them in each of the main three characters: Said, Khaled and Suha.

Abu-Assad leaves the viewer to question enough: What is justified resistance? Is armed resistance better than nonviolence?

Does it glorify suicide bombing? Hardly. It allows you to follow the characters to their preposed fate, though those roads change and you are left mourning the loss of life on all sides.

In the end the movie makes you want to scream for an end to the violence in the Holy Land. Hany Abu-Assad and the crew should be especially commended for the risk taking that went into making this film. It is one that leaves you with more questions than answers, but all in all it is a passionate plea for dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians and for all of us to stop the madness that is more of a battle within ourselves than with the other.

PARADISE NOW opens windows of information to those of us who do not live in the Middle East and who toil over understanding the strife that daily bitterly continues, bruising the lives of both ends of the polarity that separates the peoples of the region. Are there ever to be answers or solutions to the crises? For this viewer watching and absorbing PARADISE NOW is illuminating in that it removes the expected political preaching to focus on the minds of the people living under the daily stress of life at its most difficult. Taking us there, making ideas into people with all the convictions and rebelliousness and fragility, writer/director Hany Abu-Assad (with Bero Beyer) offers invaluable insights and in the end we are left with a story about humanity and the consequences of decisions, and the desperate need for peace.

Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) are childhood friends in Palestine who have been elected to be suicide bombers in an attack on Tel Aviv. Their election to be martyrs for the destruction of the 'invaders' is considered an honor: their deaths will bring glory to their country, their families, and guarantee them instant entry into heaven. We see the two men as citizens living in the dusty hovels, facing barricades and checkpoints that make their lives ones of constant stress. Martyrdom will bring them peace and eternal rest. The entire process of preparing the elected martyrs, from making farewell videotapes for their parents, to having their hair cut short, to having the bombs strapped to their bodies, to dressing them in black suits for the 'wedding' they are instructed to claim to attend in Tel Aviv, to sending them off at the designated spot is relentlessly filmed. Said and Khaled accept their roles although with varying degrees of emotional commitment. At the point where the lads are to begin their martyrdom venture they are separated and the story is how each continues living, each now alone.

The families and the perpetrators of the scheme are well drawn by a strong cast, with one female role Suha (Lubna Azabal) as a voice of reason and peace standing out particularly strongly. The sensitivity of the actors Kais Nashef and Ali Suliman keeps this drama from sinking into politicism and instead allows us to understand the inner turmoil of the two men they portray as they cope with their duties and their lives.

This is a powerful document that serves as a plea for peace wherever terrorism is a factor - and now that is global. If more of us could watch and absorb films such as PARADISE NOW perhaps the itinerant boundaries separating mankind by misunderstanding could be reduced without the need for war. Highly Recommended. In Arabic with English subtitles. Grady Harp, October 06

Hany Abu-Assad has done a masterful job putting a human face to suicide bombing in Israel. It is rare to find a movie that touches on an issue as controversial as this one. And even though it presents a rather one-sided approach to the topic (i.e. the Palestinian side), the movie is refreshingly well portrayed. The key to understanding why this movie will appeal to people on both sides of the issue is that it isn't trying to answer the moral question at hand (...are Palestinian suicide bombers justified?). Rather, Abu-Assad is merely presenting a human being that is struggling with a passion for religion and country, who ultimately has to choose between "paradise now" or hell on earth, while leaving the moral question for the audience to decide.

Likewise, it would be difficult to encapsulate the many reasons behind Palestinian suicide bombing in a two hour movie. So be aware that the arguments for or against suicide bombing, while present in minor dialogue throughout the movie, never culminate into a deep and powerful argument one way or the other. Rather, the audience is left to make their own decisions based on their own viewpoints about this sort of thing, which is exactly why both sides will gain something from watching it. Besides, when it comes to any act of agression, there will always exist many different perspectives regarding the major and minor movements towards such acts. The movie portrays the conflict of rural vs. modern living in the midst of the confrontation, and makes it out to be a major player in the battle, but I have to question whether the religious motives were shown accurately or at all, since religious motives can lead people to do things that they may otherwise not do in similar situations. All this aside, as I pointed out before, the reasons for the agression are left to the audience to decide, as we are never presented with the full world view of the two main characters, nor the views of their leaders. In other words, Assad meets the audience "halfway" in the debate, and presents a powerful story of two men in the midst of the Palestinian mission. Walking out of this movie, I could barely resist thinking myself through the entire movie again with my own viewpoints as the medium for analysis.

The movie follows the lives of two men named Khaled and Said who are Palestinian car mechanics. Suha, the daughter of Abu Assam a famous anti-Israeli leader, meets Said when she goes to pick her car up at his shop. This is the beginning of a relationship between Said and Suha. When Khaled and Said are chosen for a suicide mission, the first one in two years, the men strap bombs to themselves and prepare for death. But when the plan hits a road block, the men have to re-evaluate whether or not suicide bombing is the answer after all. In the end, Suha is the loudest voice against the suicide bombing and she fights till the end to prevent it from happening.

The cast does an Oscar worthy job in portraying the reality of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. The plot is engaging and takes plenty of unexpected turns, and the settings are well done and well shot. Overall, this movie has to be one of the best this year for its venturesome topic, unromantic characterizations, and its poignant storyline.