Nielsen’s Nook

I saw a tremendous movie last night that I wanted to put on your radar if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s a story about two boys, friendship, family, courage, forgiveness, and living in the bentness of life.

I have seen the New York Times Bestselling book around but given my general pessimism to literature and film today, I never bothered to find out more. 

Kite Runner’s historical setting was interesting to me on two fronts. First, it incorporated a look into the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, where most of the story takes place. Aside from having an affinity for things Russian, I found the reality presented how war of any kind radically changes people. Second, the Afghan and Islamic culture in which the story is told is rich and fascinating to one who knows very little about either.

The story is extremely well told. That is unequivocally rare these days. The use of symbols like the kite and the pomegranate are powerful. The use of parallelism and perhaps even some sort of chiasm were masterful. Kite Runner shares the same media as movies but has elevated itself to that of film. In terms of awards and recognition, it was nominated for nothing compared to what it should have been. But that’s the world we live in. This movie will move you. It is not intended for mere entertainment.

Rating: PG13
YEAR: 2005
Media Reviewed: DVD
Language: Arabic with English Subtitles
AWARDS: Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film
Nominations: Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 2005

In a world full of movies, it is nice to find oneself being gripped by a film. Paradise Now is one of those films that spills out on the floor of my comfortable Western living room and doesn’t seem to go away when the DVD player is turned off.

You’ve likely never heard of director Hany Abu-Assad or any of the leading actors in the film (Kais Nashef, Ali Suliman, and Lubna Azabal) - at least I never had. And yet what I found was that the actors were excellent and the story was gripping.

As many good works of art are, this film is also controversial. that some have felt humanizes suicide bombers. I would suggest to you that it is an important film precisely because it moves the Palestinian conflict with Israel from the abstract to your living room and puts it in very human terms.

Saïd (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) are two regular guys, who begin the film working as auto mechanics.� They are close friends and are trying to survive in a land that is run down in the mires of a devastating poverty.� They are likeable characters, faithful friends.

They are approached by a man from an unnamed Palestinian resistance group and informed that they have been “chosen” for the next mission.� The film then takes the viewer on a deeply psychological ride, as it depicts the manipulative elements at play in the decision of the two friends to “accept” the mission.

Some of these elements include good rhetoric; however, what we find is that the rhetoric is historical and generational. Saïd’s father had become a “collaborator” when he was only a boy.� A collaborator in Palestinian terms is one who is paid by the Israelis to subvert the Palestinian resistance.� Saïd’s father was discovered and killed when Saïd was only a boy.� Now a man, the shame that Saïd feels because of his father’s treason is a strong compulsion for him to accept the mission to blow himself up in Tel Aviv. Certainly the pressure of resistance groups is very real. The point the film seems to make is that they merely appeal to the frustrations and shames that exist in the Palestinian psyche at the deepest levels.� At one point in the film, the two friends are deliberating over whether or not they should complete the mission.� As they dialog one feels the contradiction in which they live: life is so bad for them that death could only be better. Such a “martyrdom” promises respect while dying in poverty holds nothing but shame for them.

Suha (Lubna Azabal) is the educated daughter of one of a legendary “martyr” who now lives in the aftermath of his death. She serves as the foil in many ways to Saïd and Khaled.� Stephen Holden of THE NEW YORK TIMES writes of Suha’s role as foil in the film:

In an emotional confrontation with both men, she articulates the arguments against suicide bombing. What happens to those left behind, she asks? Her question alludes not only to the grief of surviving loved ones but also to the political fallout from suicide bombing: the tragic pattern of revenge begetting revenge that will further oppress Palestinians. Her humane voice becomes the movie’s moral and emotional grounding wire.

This is a film that should at once make us uncomfortable and at the same time broaden our understanding of the complexities that orbit the ever continuing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Richard Silverstein believes that those who view this movie:

will have to reopen their minds to this conflict. They will have to dust off their certainties and grapple with brutal, hard moral ambiguity. They will have to readdress this seemingly eternal conflict in an effort to make sense of the tragedy happening on both sides of the divide. I do not worry that the film will create new sympathizers for Palestinian terror. Anyone who views this conflict in a clear-eyed, balanced way cannot sympathize with such abominable acts any more than they can sympathize with Israel’s often murderous response to them (or vice versa). No one can “win” this conflict.

As an American, terrorism and suicide bombings petrify me. As a Christian there seems to be a better way to establish peace and extend compassion to both the Israeli and the Palestinian than the way in which the current trajectories in Palestine and Israel allow. All heads that roll from the machinery of war and terror were all part of a living whole which the scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all hold to be the image of the living God. There are more facets to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict than bullets and bombs can address. I hope you will also watch this film, throwing off the shackles of entertainment and taking on the yoke of contemplation.