PARADISE NOW

Paradise Now really couldn't be more timely: Two Palestinian men are chosen for a bombing mission. Their instructions are to go to Tel Aviv, and simply blow up themselves up—but take as many Israeli soldiers as possible with them. Rather than villainizing the men, Paradise Now shows us two regular guys, best friends from childhood, who live in the poverty of the West Bank city of Nablus. They have a lifelong passion about their beliefs, and just happen to be willing to die for it.

Saïd (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) work dead-end jobs as mechanics, and pass time smoking water pipes on the hill while gazing upon their depressed city. They get a message from the local leader of the resistance group, and are told that the two of them have been selected for the next suicide mission. When? Tomorrow.

The film follows about two days in the lives of these young men—as they pass the night unable to tell their families and friends of their mission; as they report to duty, get ritually shaved, are given new suits, and are strapped with bombs; and as they cross the border to complete their mission. Of course, not all goes as planned, and the film is tense with the question if the men will fulfill their assignment.

The two actors are believable as friends. Khaled, at first, feels like the most adamant and excited of the two, proud to serve his duty. Saïd (he of the very soulful eyes), however, is more troubled. He has just met an independent young woman named Suha (Lubna Azabal) that he could see himself falling for, and he is very close to his mother, who already lost her husband to violence many years earlier. The film flip-flops your assumptions about the two characters all the way to the last scene. Literally, up until the final frame, I wasn't sure how the would end.

For folks like myself, it is eye-opening and jarring to see the poverty and the bitterness of the region. Israel always makes the news, and gets the sympathetic headlines by being the preferred friend of the United States—but I really don't know much about the other side. Apparently one of the location managers for the film was actually kidnapped as they filmed in the dangerous hotbed of Nablus, and Yasser Arafat helped get him released. The circle of violence in the region may at times seem inevitable, but thankfully there is an array of viewpoints in the film (mostly through Suha's voice of reason) to show at least consideration of other options.

Paradise Now may be criticized for its portrayal of suicide bombers as "regular guys"... but it also serves its purpose of humanizing these people, who find a cause to be so great that they sacrifice their lives for the chance of eternal paradise. Even when they themselves aren't so sure that paradise exists.