Hany Abu-Assad’s remarkable drama “Paradise Now” is a riveting exploration of one of the key questions of our time: What impels a person to become a suicide bomber?
The reader may reasonably ask another question: Why on earth would I pay to see a movie about suicide bombers?
To put it bluntly, “Paradise Now” is required viewing for anyone who considers him or herself a friend and supporter of Israel. If that sounds like a prescription for a pedantic evening of being subjected to hateful, hate-filled characters, you’re in for a surprise.
An illuminating character study and a breathless thriller, “Paradise Now” is as entertaining as it is thought provoking. It is not only one of the most important movies of the year, but the most passionate, insightful and darkly funny picture to hit theaters in a long time.
Shot in Nablus, Nazareth and Tel Aviv, “Paradise Now” centers on Said and Khaled, a pair of Palestinians profoundly frustrated by their lack of opportunities. They’re at the bottom of the food chain, scuffling as low-paid auto mechanics forced to endure the abusive complaints of wealthy customers who are just as powerless as they are.
Like Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman’s profound and sardonic “Divine Intervention” and “Chronicle of a Disappearance” (well worth seeking out on DVD), “Paradise Now” illustrates how depriving people of their autonomy or authority eats away at their self-respect.
Contrary to what we think we know about potential suicide commandos, Said and Khaled aren’t 18-year-old boys who’ve been manipulated or brainwashed by cynical fanatics. They are men in their 20s who have known for quite a while that their possibilities in life were acutely limited and have concluded that desperate measures are the only way to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
Informed on short notice that they’ve been selected to carry out a suicide operation, Said and Khaled go about a series of rituals — shaving, taping a video message, spending their last evening with unsuspecting family members. As if to underscore the frustration of the Palestinians, nothing goes quite as planned. The video camera quits in the middle of Khaled’s speech, in a brilliant sequence where the deadly serious is derailed by absurdity.
At the appointed moment, Said and Khaled slip through a hole in the fence in broad daylight and enter Israel. But an unexpected hitch forces them to abort the plan and provides an opportunity to reconsider the wisdom and morality of sacrificing their own lives — as well as murdering innocent people.
“Paradise Now” has plenty of impassioned philosophical and moral debate about the pros and cons of suicide attacks, initiated by Suha, a pretty young woman who’s just returned to Nablus after years of education in Europe. Suha represents the new generation of forceful, outspoken Arab women who are unwilling to accept that death is the only path open to young Palestinian men.
Said’s mother, meanwhile, knows more than she lets on but says nothing. These people are not religious fundamentalists, nor do they praise Allah on an hourly basis, but they accept destiny and fate as legitimate forces in their lives.
Abu-Assad (who also directed the exceptional “Rana’s Wedding” as well as “Ford Transit”) is not interested in either message-laden docudrama or artless neo-realism. With wit, intelligence and unexpected artfulness, he pushes past stereotypes and superficialities to probe a subject we’d all prefer to avoid.
All he asks is that we take a look. We decline at our own peril.
Paradise Now” opens Nov. 4 in San Francisco and Nov. 11 in the East Bay.