Film title:
Paradise Now
Director:
Hany Abu-Assad
Starring:
Kais Nashef, Ali Suliman
A timely, balanced portrayal of the displaced Palestinians behind acts of terrorism in the Middle East, 'Paradise Now' follows childhood friends Said and Khaled, as they change from listless young men to suicide bombers in the space of 27 hours. Suddenly receiving their summons for martyrdom, the young men are led through the last hours of their lives like sacrificial lambs, seemingly pawns to older men's fanaticism. Said and Khaled spend a final supervised night with their families before undergoing the minutiae of funeral preparations and the filming of their final statements; a scene movingly undermined with humour as the boys stumble through the language of solemn rhetoric only for the video camera to break. When their mission goes wrong, the separated boys have time to reconsider. Khaled opts out of a second attempt, but Said's journey takes him up a host of metaphorical dead-ends, ultimately establishing the inevitability of his death. This stark, humane work from Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad is a groundbreaking character study, bravely tackling the complexities of conflict, and forcing the viewer to question the usual simplification of good vs evil. [Rosie Crerar]