‘Paradise Now’—a Palestinian view of suicide bombings

Who are the Palestinians who blow themselves up for their cause? Why do they do this?

Are they “terrorists,” “fanatics,” “cowards”? People who come from a place where “life is cheap”? This is what the U.S. media say, but the voices speaking are not Palestinian; they are the self-proclaimed “Middle East experts” from the Bush administration, or from pro-Washington think tanks.

What do Palestinians have to say about the people in their communities who volunteer for suicide missions?

If you want to know, then run, don’t walk, to see the independent film “Paradise Now.”

This Arabic language, subtitled film—shot in 2005 on location in Nablus—just won the prestigious Golden Globe award for best foreign language film and is Palestine’s entry to the Academy Awards. It is “a real, deep and intense personal view of how normal young men make the decision to do something so unimaginable,” according to the director Hani Abu-Assad.

Paradise Now is a riveting suspense story, with touches of humor. The film covers 48 hours in the lives of Said and Khaled, childhood best friends, who work as auto mechanics. Said and Khaled receive word that the suicide mission for which they volunteered some time ago will take place the next day. As they requested, the friends will be doing it together.

They are fitted with explosive vests and set out for their mission. But things do not go according to plan. The two men are separated. In the frantic dash from place to place to set things right, Khaled and Said deeply and movingly begin to question and explore their motivation for what they are doing.

Shot on location in Nablus, the film allows the viewer to enter the lives of the people who live there, and to get a glimpse of life after 40 years of Israeli occupation. We see the humiliation of going through an Israeli checkpoint, the danger involved in sneaking through a heavily patrolled portion of the wall Israel has built to seal Palestinians into tiny areas.

We visit the impoverished homes of Said, Khaled and their families. We sit at the table with them to eat. We see what they do for entertainment; we are with them at work. We see the unpredictability of life due to ever-changing Israeli roadblocks. We walk with the characters through the streets of Nablus, the second largest city on the West Bank and formerly a pride of Palestine, now with large areas reduced to rubble by Israeli missiles.

The film’s director, Hani Abu-Assad, is a Palestinian born within the Israeli green line, in the city of Nazareth. The film was produced by Bero Beyer, who is based in Amsterdam, and Amir Harel, who is Israeli. The leading characters, Said and Khaled, are played by Palestinian theater actors Ali Suleiman and Kais Nashef. Warner Independent Pictures distributes the film in the United States.

In accepting the Golden Globe, Abu-Assad said he saw the award not only as recognition of the film, its cast and crew, “but also as recognition that the Pales tinians deserve their liberty and equality unconditionally.”

Abu-Assad strived to keep the film close to reality. “I read the interrogations of bombers who failed, an interview with a lawyer in a jail where they are held, and the report of the Israeli officials,” he explained. “I spoke to people who knew the bombers who died: friends and families and mothers. I learned no story is the same as the others. (The Guardian, Feb. 12)

This 2005 film has also won other awards, including the Amnesty Inter nat ional Film Award, and best foreign film awards from Independent Spirit, the National Board of Review and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Board. The movie’s artistic merits are all the more impressive since it was made in a war zone. Nablus has the highest number of casualties, the most severe physical damage and the most intensive restrictions in movement in the West Bank, according to a recent United Nations report. A land mine detonated 300 feet from the film’s production.

If the film is not playing in your city, it is well worth it to wage a struggle to get your local independent movie center to carry “Paradise Now.” You may have no other choice. In searching the web, this writer found the film only playing in eight U.S. cities. (www.imdb.com)

On Jan 22, “Paradise Now” was seen in one theater each in New York City; Mont clair, N.J.; Los Angeles; Denver; and Albany, Ore. The film was also viewed in one-time showings in Pilot Grove, Mo., and Occidental and Santa Rosa, Calif.

The DVD, however, comes out in March.

The people of the United States have a right to hear Palestinian views, in art and in politics. But this takes struggle.