PARADISE NOW
France / Germany / Netherlands, 2005, 90 minutes, Colour.
Ashraf Barhom, Mohammed Bustami.
Directed by Hany Abu- Assad.
One of the acclaimed films of the Berlin Film Festival was Paradise Now. It won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language film and was nominated for an Oscar in that category. It was written and directed by Hany Abu- Assad, a Palestinian from Israel who lives in Holland. While the director says he was working on the script before September 11th 2001, it took on more significance after those events and in the light of the 2000 intifada.
This is a necessary film.
Most people all over the world are continually stunned by headlines of killings by suicide bombers. How can this be? What really motivates a suicide bomber? Is it the Prophet’s vision of heaven, a reward for self-immolation? Or is it the desperation that decades of poverty, oppression, curtailment of rights and freedoms have brought about.
Paradise Now introduces us to two ordinary Palestinians living in Nablus. Life is manageable but not comfortable. They work at mechanics’ jobs and ‘hang out’. Then the word comes for them to go on a suicide mission.
The film takes us into the lives of these two men, one a cheery gung-ho enthusiast who uncritically believes all he has been told, the other a more sombre man who has stored up years of humiliation and anger. Supporting characters offer varying perspectives on the mission and the quest for peace, the director firmly believing that talks and understanding are more effective than violence and killing. The intellectual leader of the cell and his deputy portray the intensity of the political and violent groups along with the filming of the video of the bombers stating their dedication to their mission after undergoing an almost religious ritual of shaving, washing and purification. A human rights activist, daughter of a martyred bomber, puts the peace and dialogue point of view. The mother of the about-to-be terrorist, shows the human face and reality of the grief that these actions bring about.
The way of life in Nablus is presented in day-to-day detail and it is something of a shock when the final sequences in Tel Aviv show an affluent, prosperous modern city, an enormous difference between standards of living in Israel compared with those of Palestine.
1. The impact of the film, topical? The 21st century and the 20th century heritage in Palestine? The history of Palestine, relationships with Israel?
2. The perspective of the director? Background in Israel? Palestinian? Living in Europe?
3. World perceptions of Israel and Palestine, reinforcing attitudes, challenging?
4. Entering into the mind of suicide bombers, the credibility of their beliefs, actions? Making their decisions intelligible?
5. The locations, Palestine, the city of Nablus, poverty, hard lifestyle, the fence with Israel, the symbolism of the barriers? The contrast with Tel Aviv, the affluent city, the resort? The musical score?
6. The perception of Palestine and the Palestinians, the possibilities for life, development? Confined, feeling themselves imprisoned? Local freedoms, lacking general freedoms? The martyr tradition? Collaborators with Israel and their dealing with them? The cells for uprising, for terrorism? Education, indoctrination, readiness for self-sacrifice, anger and revenge?
7. The title, the promises of the Koran? Islamic beliefs – and the attitudes of Islamic non-believers? The importance of prayer, the ethos, the bombers and their religion, those in charge of the terrorist cells?
8. The opening, the girl, the bus, crossing the frontier, the humiliation, the search? The reputation of her father? Normal aspects of life, the car? Taking it to the garage? Her friendship with Said? With Khaled? The house, Said, help, watching? The cemetery? Her being the mouthpiece of Human Rights Through Peace, other ways than terrorism? Her declaration that people should not see themselves as victims or the same as their oppressors?
9. Said and Khaled, the working on the car, the bashing, fired, the cantankerous owner? Khaled and his mother? Said and his family, his mother, brother in the T-shirt, the sister? The smoking, listening to the cassette, the tea and the boy coming up the hill for them, their ordinary way of life, day by day in Nablus?
10. The revelation about the plan, the teacher’s arrival, his being a leader, explaining the mission, persuading the men that this was their time? The final night, the making of the video, its not working, the messages? The ritual preparation, the haircut, the washing of their bodies? The bombs and the danger? The control, carrying the bombs, detonation, their suits, looking respectable? Said and his relationship with the young woman, the visit to her?
11. The fence, getting through, the signal of the lights, the car, having to go back? Khaled getting through, his being debriefed? Said lost in Israel, going to the bus, coming back? His bewilderment, his mother at the window? His going to the rendezvous and finding it empty, going to the garage, fixing the car, with the girl, getting his watch fixed, the visit to the cemetery, his father? His personal struggle? The memory of his father killed for collaboration? His sense of responsibility for his mother?
12. The work of Khaled, going to the bosses, handling the situation, finding Said?
13. The next day, the repetition of the ritual, the rendezvous? Discussions, Khaled and his changing his mind, Said continuing? The motivation for the change, wanting to live, not wanting Paradise now?
14. The final collage of the faces of all those involved, the young woman, the two men, the bosses, the families? Said in the bus and the inevitability of his suicide mission?
15. The film immersing audiences in the life of Palestine and the beginning of the 21st century?
