Paradise Now

Paradise Now is a 2005 film directed by Hany Abu-Assad and stars Kais Nashef and Ali Suliman. The film is about 2 Palestinian men training to become suicide bombers for an attack in Israel. This is a good film. The film is shot beautifully. The location-based sets (shot in Nablus) highlight Palestine’s natural beauty. The camera work for each scene creates excellent immersion. What I appreciate about this movie is that each scene progresses the plot. There are no filler scenes. There is hardly any exposition in the film either. You figure out the characters intentions and personalities through their actions, not them just speaking about it to the audience. I find that the dialogue in the film is well written and progresses character development. The 2 main characters do an excellent job at their respective roles. The film emphasizes character facial expressions and lets us see characters think and contemplate their actions without exposition. A minimum score emphasizes and executes this direction. Seeing the characters in their last days contemplating death with no dialogue and minimum score is very powerful, and with the beautiful cinematography, these scenes are executed well.

Kais Nashef and Ali Suliman are excellent, and they have great chemistry. The pair’s acting really sells the friendship that the film tries to convey. Lubna Azabel is great in her supporting character as well. Her character is written as one that brings reason to the film’s stars. Her dialogue and scenes are not preachy which is a good thing, because it would have killed the immersion. This is a film that not only sheds on the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict but is also one about identity and ego. All 3 of these characters are haunted by somebody else’s past actions. They do not want their identity to be defined by these past actions, but they also want to fight for the same cause. This leads to each character coming to different conclusions at the end of their arcs which makes for a fantastic ending. Humiliation is the feeling I got from these characters when they were discussing Israel. A powerful line that I liked from the film was “How can the oppressors claim they are oppressed?” The Palestinian point of view is not represented in western media. The film offers a nuanced take on the emotional trauma. The film does a good job of portraying the conflict from a micro point of view. The conflict affecting the desired legacy of the characters offers compelling, nuanced insights that are richer in content than watching a news video or reading an article would.

If I would have any criticisms of the film, it would be that I just want more of the film. I think the pacing was wonderful, but I was compelled by these characters and just wanted more screen time of them. This gives testament to the wonderful story that was presented here.