OVP: Paradise Now (2005)

Film: Paradise Now (2005)
Stars: Kais Nashif, Ali Suliman, Lubna Azabal, Hiam Abbass
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Foreign Language Film-Palestine)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

It's sometimes hard to remember, but the Oscars have always had their little controversies.  Thus was the case fifteen years ago when the Academy nominated Paradise Now.  The film had won its share of accolades prior to Oscar; it'd taken the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, and had been cited by the National Board of Review as the best foreign-language film of 2005.  However, with Oscar comes an enormous world stage, and with that, more scrutiny.  The film was historic for being the first film from Palestine to be nominated in the category.  In the past, Palestine had been forbidden from being able to submit since it wasn't a country (the United States, where the Oscars are held, did not and continues to not recognize the State of Palestine), but as places like Taiwan and Puerto Rico (also not countries when they had submitted) had been able to submit previously, it felt like an unfair double standard to not include Palestine.  However, when Paradise Now was nominated, the Academy hedged a bit, and if you watch a clip of the Oscars that year, you'll hear presenter Will Smith say that the film is from the "Palestinian Territories" rather than from "Palestine."  It would be eight more years before a film (weirdly also directed by Hany Abu-Assad), would be announced as actually from Palestine, 2013's Omar.  But what of the actual film?  Today I'm going to try and put politics aside and discuss the actual movie that is in front of us that attracted so much controversy in 2005.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about two men: Said (Nashif) and Khaled (Suliman), who live in Palestine and have been recruited to commit a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, from which they will both die in the process.  We track their last moments, particularly those around Said, who has tender goodbyes to both his mother (Abbass, whom American audiences will recognize as playing Marcia on Succession) as well as the wealthy Suha (Azabal), who is the daughter of a war hero and with whom Said has had an ongoing flirtation.  When the suicide bombing doesn't go as plan, both men run, with Said being separated from the group and being branded a traitor even though he didn't intend to do so.  Along the way, both Said & Khaled have changes-of-heart, with Khaled now not wanting to commit the crime, and Said, who had seemed apprehensive heading into the attack, now determined to do so.  The film ends with him on a bus to what appears to be some sort of airport, prepared to kill a number of Israeli soldiers through the bombing.

The film is fascinating, and it's easy to see why it attracted such ire in its day.  The movie initially felt like it'd miscast Nashif, impossibly handsome but incredibly introverted, a blank slate on a character that we wouldn't want to write our own story across (in literally any other film, he'd be the bad guy).  The movie is provocative in the way that it shows his humanity, even though one could make the argument (and some did at the time) that the closing moments of the film are too willing to forgive a man who is about to kill dozens of people.

This is the film's conundrum.  Much like the previous year's Downfall, we have a villain who is being humanized in the front of the conversation, or at least what we'd consider a villain.  However, it's easy to give Hitler some sort of acknowledgement as a man of flesh-and-blood while also showing that he deserved to be damned for all time.  It's quite another to pick a man who is a soldier, or at least some would view as a solider, in an ongoing conflict who is not easy to describe as a villain.  Technical proficiency and fine acting aside, this is the biggest problem with Abu-Assad's movie.  We leave assuming that Khaled & Suha are wrong because the blank slate performance in the movie's center wasn't swayed by their arguments, but he is about to commit unspeakable atrocities in hopes of a world where this conflict is ended.  The filmmakers don't fall down on either side here, and I think that might be a miss in a movie as politically-charged as Paradise Now.  But with its technical skill, riveting drama, and plotting up until that point, it's easy to see why Oscar endorsed such a movie despite the controversy.