PARADISE NOW
Directed by: Hany Abu-Assad.
Produced by: Bero Beyer.
Written by: Hany Abu-Assad & Bero Beyer.
Director of Photography: Antoine Heberlé.
Edited by: Sander Vos.
Music by: Jina Sumedi.
Released by: Warner Independent.
Language: Arabic with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Netherlands/German/France. 90 min. Rated: PG-13.
With: Kais Nashef, Ali Suliman & Lubna Azabal.

Throughout this often tense film, a storm brews inside Saïd's (Kais Nashef) piercing emerald eyes, creating an irresistible sympathy toward this unassuming Palestinian auto mechanic. He and his best friend Khaled (Ali Suliman) are asked by an unnamed organization to carry out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. Have been friends since childhood, Saïd and Khaled wish to die together and so accept the proposal. Reserved throughout, Saïd’s internal struggle is subtly revealed through numerous close-ups. After the two unshorn and disheveled men are groomed and made-over, which wholly changes the appearances of both, the looming hesitance over the terrorist act seems to subside, and both men look forward to the paradisical future that awaits them. Khaled, especially, expresses his excitement for the bombing, concluding "Under the occupation, we're already dead." His anticipation and sincerity is undercut with dark humor by a hapless video cameraman when he makes his "suicide tape," holding a rifle in his hands and reciting a political message and then a farewell to his mother. But before Saïd enters Israel, he remains doubtful about the mission. This changes when a mishap causes the two men to separate at the border.

Filming on location in the West Bank lends further urgency to a plot that resembles in many ways a conventional thriller with the requisite twists and turns plus a glimmer of romance between Saïd and his French-educated neighbor, who urges Saïd to abandon his task. There's even a backstory involving Saïd's father, a collaborator who brought shame to his son. However, this humiliation is told rather than depicted. Given that Saïd is an accepted member of his community as well as the underground, the audience has to accept the writers' word that his father’s disgrace has scarred Saïd.

But unlike the recent American film The War Within, with one suicide bomber on the loose, the politics are made much more specific here and the acting more solid. While examining the psychological web of reason underlying terrorism, director Abu-Assad does not attempt to offer a complete answer, nor does he present the events that take place in a biased light. His message is a political one, but more than that, it is humanistic. There is, Abu-Assad reminds us, a cause and effect for everything. Parisa Vaziri
October 28, 2005