Paradise Now (2005)

38 out of 39 people found the following review helpful:

Paradise Now

SAI81 from from Tonbridge, 3rd May, 2006

am sure some people will take one look at the coverage of Paradise Now and vow not to see it. It's a Palestinian film about 24 hours in the life of two young childhood friends who are chosen for a 'martyrdom mission' in Israel. Given this there will be people who leap to the conclusion that it must be sympathetic to suicide bombers, or endorsing what they do. These people are wrong. Paradise Now is a sober, serious film which takes a long hard look at people we usualy just arbitraily brand as monsters. The first 20 minutes of the film lets us get to know Khaled (Ali Suliman) and Said (Kais Nashef) we spend an afternoon with them; two young men much like any others and we get to like them which makes what follows all the more shocking. While the film refuses, to its credit, to demonise Khaled and Said it absolutely doesn't endorse what they plan to do and shows the terrorist network around them as fundamentally evil and dishonest. The film is often chilling; witness Khaled's video statement about his actions, flawlessly played by Suliman, but doesn't forget that the grimness of it's subject needs some leavening and at the most tense moments a brief second of comedy is granted to you, almost as a way of letting you relax. Leads Suliman and Nashef are spectacular and surrounded by an able supporting cast, notably Lubna Azabal as a young teacher who is falling for Said and Amer Hlehel as Jamal, one of the minders assigned to Said and Khaled and the film's true villain. Debut director Hany Abu Assad doesn't use many filmmaking tricks, much of the film has the look of a documentary and that ring of truth extends to everything in the film. It's impossible to know how close Assad gets to the truth but this feels all too real. So why not a top grade? Well I guessed the ending. Not that unusual but I guessed almost every detail by the middle of the film (and by the start of the last scene I'd even guessed exactly what the final shot would be). This predictability does make Paradise Now a slightly lesser film than it might otherwise have been but it is still pretty extraordinary and very highly recommended.

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20 out of 24 people found the following review helpful:

A REALITY BEHIND THE POLITICS

Michelle Fallows from Doncaster, 24th February, 2006

I watched almost all the movie and i will order it to watch it again at home. This is a real face of what is happening in Palestine and Israel. It is based on a true story. I recommend People from all religion background or even without anyreligion watch this. It is a piece of Reality what we are facing nowadays in our daily life

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11 out of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Like screaming at a concrete barrier

PeterSays from from Romsey, 1st May, 2007

Paradise Now makes no pretence at being a balanced view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is neither illusion to, nor even the slightest suggestion of, the carnage and the loss of innocent blood when a suicide bomber strikes, which to their mutilated victims and the families of the dead and injured, must seem utterly senseless. The frustration and annoyance of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation is well portrayed, as is their close kinship and the claustrophobic atmosphere of a nation under siege. Arguments for both violent and non-violent protest are put forward in human terms in a very watch able film by the main characters, ordinary Palestinian people, while the organisers of the bombers are seen as cold and cynical. Films, books, protests, diplomacy and bombings all continue, on and on and on, for years and years and years, yet nothing seems to change. It is so frustrating and is so senseless.

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11 out of 13 people found the following review helpful:

A powerful, poignant, provocative drama !

A Customer from Glasgow, 18th March, 2006

'It would be difficult to undertake a more politically relevant film or explore a more volatile subject, and Abu-Assad attempts his project with skill and sensitivity.' #Other Palestinian films to watch : Private(2004); Rana's Wedding (2002) ; Jenin, Jenin (2002) ; Gaza Strip (2002) & Cup Final (1991).

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Doesn't go deep enough

CTM from from Harrow, 11th August, 2008

Quite engaging- and an eye-opener, but I feel that something is lacking in this film. Not as powerful as some led me to believe, but you do get an enormous sense of the tradgedy of the whole Palesrine/Israel conflict and hatred etc. Very interesting to see it from the suicide bombers point of view. Worth the watch.

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Customer Review

A Customer from UK, 23rd June, 2008

The problem might be ,for some of us,that this tale is so objective and balanced that it might shock our western mind-set. It dares to suggest that suicide bombers aare very close to being just like us. There but for the grace of God or Allah go I. An excellent DVD. I beg everyone to watch and digest it's message.

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Versus Hell on Earth

barbi from , 14th June, 2008

This is a film with a very interesting basic principle – are would-be suicide bombers totally evil or just like the rest of us? Looking at real life over the past few years, it’s a good question. Taking the examples of Palestinian car mechanics, Said (the good-looking bright one) and Khaled (the hotter-headed, somewhat dumb, one), we get to meet them in their every day lives, watch with interest Said’s possible future romance with Suha, daughter of a political leader. Then, just as they are, we are plunged into the threat of a mission against Israel, heralded by the arrival of Jamal, the one character I found truly believable, a teacher who seemed to outsiders to be concerned only with social issues. Instead, he had to remind our heroes of their promises and their duty. We follow them then from the point where they are told what to do and there are cliff hangers right to the end as to whether the task will be carried out. So far, so good, but the film somewhere gets diverted along a lot of sidetracks, byways and generally boring diversions. Somewhere in here there is potentially a very good film which poses a lot of questions, but I don’t think it quite answers them

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Worth watching

A Customer from London,, 7th February, 2008

This film was very well made with a good plot. It gave a real insight into the world of Palestinian suicide bombers and how they really feel about doing it. If you can't handle subtitles then don't watch it.

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