This is a good film, perhaps a very good film. It held my attention and I found myself being drawn into the streets of Tel Aviv, and then into the more gritty streets of Nablus. It's beautifully photographed. We hear so much about the conflict and see grainy photos of war and tragedy but this movie gives the feeling of what it's actually like to live there.
The drama, however, is a different matter. It is so obviously fiction that we feel manipulated by a story that is artificial and made up to expound a particular point of view. That this point of view is neither partisan to the Israeli nor the Palestinian side of the conflict is a good thing, but in it's evenhandedness it seems too contrived to be believable. Amin is an Arab doctor in a Tel Aviv hospital who must treat the victims of a suicide bomber. Turns out the bomber is his loving wife who he never suspected was a terrorist. It is not believable that the wife, a Christian, would blow herself up out of sympathy for the Palestinian cause, (there have never been any Christian suicide bombers as far as I know), it is not believable that the husband would not suspect that the wife was faking her love for him all that time in order to be a sleeper agent for Muslim terrorists inside Israel. The plot is contrived to bring maximum pain and confusion to the husband so he can be a sort of existential symbol of the contradictions of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. He is a straw man, made to witness his wife's betrayal and see first hand the horrific results of her insane act merely so we can philosophize about the pity of war. Obviously, the wife was incapable of seeing that what she did could only make matters worse for the Palestinians. In fact, all the oppression the Palestinians complain so much about is a result of Israel having to defend itself against suicide bombers. This point isn't really mentioned in the movie, which is a serious oversight.
When he finally realizes that the perpetrator of this heinous act was his beautiful wife, Amin vows to find out why she did it. He goes to Nablus where he grew up and where he hopes to find clues to her motivations. Once he sets foot in Nablus we instantly feel we're in crazy town. His wife's picture is on the walls and people are praising her act. Because she is so obviously a fictional character meant to evoke a certain emotion from the audience, she cannot be said to have any real motivation. We are supposed to conclude that she felt such sympathy for the Palestinians that it deranged her, but the film lets us down because it doesn't give any emotional correlative to her state of mind. Amin meditates on a pile of rubble where a fictional massacre was said to have taken place, but there's no feeling of the impact that scene could have had on his wife. The movie is subtle and evocative, but basically false.
The drama, however, is a different matter. It is so obviously fiction that we feel manipulated by a story that is artificial and made up to expound a particular point of view. That this point of view is neither partisan to the Israeli nor the Palestinian side of the conflict is a good thing, but in it's evenhandedness it seems too contrived to be believable. Amin is an Arab doctor in a Tel Aviv hospital who must treat the victims of a suicide bomber. Turns out the bomber is his loving wife who he never suspected was a terrorist. It is not believable that the wife, a Christian, would blow herself up out of sympathy for the Palestinian cause, (there have never been any Christian suicide bombers as far as I know), it is not believable that the husband would not suspect that the wife was faking her love for him all that time in order to be a sleeper agent for Muslim terrorists inside Israel. The plot is contrived to bring maximum pain and confusion to the husband so he can be a sort of existential symbol of the contradictions of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. He is a straw man, made to witness his wife's betrayal and see first hand the horrific results of her insane act merely so we can philosophize about the pity of war. Obviously, the wife was incapable of seeing that what she did could only make matters worse for the Palestinians. In fact, all the oppression the Palestinians complain so much about is a result of Israel having to defend itself against suicide bombers. This point isn't really mentioned in the movie, which is a serious oversight.
When he finally realizes that the perpetrator of this heinous act was his beautiful wife, Amin vows to find out why she did it. He goes to Nablus where he grew up and where he hopes to find clues to her motivations. Once he sets foot in Nablus we instantly feel we're in crazy town. His wife's picture is on the walls and people are praising her act. Because she is so obviously a fictional character meant to evoke a certain emotion from the audience, she cannot be said to have any real motivation. We are supposed to conclude that she felt such sympathy for the Palestinians that it deranged her, but the film lets us down because it doesn't give any emotional correlative to her state of mind. Amin meditates on a pile of rubble where a fictional massacre was said to have taken place, but there's no feeling of the impact that scene could have had on his wife. The movie is subtle and evocative, but basically false.