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Suicide bomb film set to shake Oscars

 
 
Reply Sat 25 Feb, 2006 09:07 pm
Suicide bomb film set to shake Oscars

Pressure is rising for Hollywood to disqualify a controversial movie about Palestinian jihadists

Emma Forrest in Los Angeles
Sunday February 26, 2006
The Observer


The preview posters for Paradise Now declare, 'From the most unexpected place, a bold new call for peace'. The trailer suggested the same thing: a Palestinian suicide bomber deciding not to go through with his mission.
But by the time the film was nominated for this year's Best Foreign Feature at the Oscars, certain audiences started to feel it was not as balanced as it had appeared in the trailer: the bomber's decision in the film to choose peace is actually short-lived. He goes through with the attack and, as the film's hero, his act is unarguably portrayed as heroic. It is set to give the 78th Academy Awards one of their most controversial years since the Seventies.

At the Laemmle Fairfax cinema in Los Angeles, Sarah Rosen, a self-described left-leaning Jew, exited Friday's 5pm screening shaking her head. 'I appreciated the unique touches, like a suicide bomber being put off his final video by the sight of a cameraman eating a sandwich. But it bothers me that Israel being the evil aggressor is taken as given.'

It is the subject of how to resist Israel - jihadists Said and Khaled say violence is the only way, while Suha, the daughter of a martyr, argues for peaceful protest - that allows for the grey area. In the end violence wins for numerous reasons - most explained by the bomber's back story. But the Hollywood looks of Said, played by Kasi Nashef, who is matinée idol handsome, are also causing discomfort. There is, for many, an uncomfortable implication that his less attractive friend, Khaled, played by Ali Suliman, hasn't the courage to bomb buses because he isn't a leading man. The charismatic directing and acting combine to create a kind of sexy jihad that has US Jewish groups calling for its disqualification.

The tensions are rising with a week to go before the big night, which is on track to be one of the most successful and most watched ceremonies ever. The campaign against Paradise Now is gathering pace. An internet campaign against the film has quickly gathered steam. It started with an open letter from Yossi Zur, whose 16-year-old son had been killed by a suicide bomber, asking that the Academy disqualify Paradise Now

'They have been given a seal of approval to hide behind,' he said. 'Now they can see that the world sees suicide bombing as legitimate.' The petition he inspired has received more than 25,000 signatures. The nomination probably won't be rescinded, but with 70 being the median academy voter age, and Judaism the predominant religion, it is something of a surprise, even to insiders, that the film has been nominated at all, let alone that it is a strong prospect to win.

Although the director, Hany Abu-Assad, and the female lead, Lubna Azabal, both live in Europe, the film is credited to 'Palestine', a country that does not technically exist. No foreign film entry has, in academy history, been attributed to such a place. It was filmed in Nablus, a West Bank town controlled by the Palestinian Authority. 'There is a likelihood,' said the show's producer, Gil Cates, 'that come Oscar night it will be attributed to "Palestinian territories".'

'The film is intended to open a discussion, hopefully a meaningful discussion,' says Abu-Assad. 'I hope that the film will succeed in stimulating thought.' Certainly the message boards on popular movie websites are buzzing.

Surprisingly, after Paradise Now won a Golden Globe in January, Abu-Assad took to the stage to generous applause, with no reticence or even booing. That can perhaps be attributed to the fact that the Golden Globes comprises non-US press. Come Oscar night, Abu-Assad may find a Hollywood audience less enthusiastic.

Or perhaps Hollywood's perceived allegiance to Israel has changed. There are five nominations for Munich, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner's deeply critical take on the hunt by Israelis for the Munich Olympic killers.


Either way, the Academy must feel lucky to have as host this year the sharp-witted Jon Stewart, Comedy Central's 'fake news' anchor beloved for calling it as he sees it across the political board. He and his writers, along with Abu-Assad, could watch, as research, the tape of the 1978 Oscars when Vanessa Redgrave, a supporter of the PLO, was awarded Best Actress for Julia. She thanked Jane Fonda and condemned 'Zionist thugs'.

Giving a writing award, dramatist Paddy Chayefsky walked out on stage and said: 'There's a little matter I'd like to tidy up, at least if I expect to live with myself tomorrow morning. I'd like to suggest that winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and that a simple "thank you" would have sufficed.'
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Lightwizard
 
  1  
Reply Sun 26 Feb, 2006 09:35 am
David Nevin also had to put up with someone baring it all.

I cited another film from India on the thread "Independent Films" which is somewhat the same plot entitled "The Terrorist" about a suicide bomber:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1101040-terrorist/.
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Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Sun 26 Feb, 2006 09:51 am
I don't think that the Academy should ban the film. All sorts of propaganda have been portrayed on film in the past. The movie needs to be judged on its cinematic merits, period.
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stevewonder
 
  1  
Reply Sun 26 Feb, 2006 11:56 am
But surely it deserves to be banned given that it offends Israeli opinion.
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danny boy
 
  1  
Reply Thu 2 Mar, 2006 05:00 pm
Israelis ask Oscars to drop suicide bomb film
Reuters - Mar 01, 05:16

A group of Israelis who lost children to Palestinian suicide bombings appealed on Wednesday to organizers of next week's Academy Awards to disqualify a film exploring the reasoning behind such attacks.

The bereaved parents said they had gathered more than 32,000 signatures on a petition against the nomination in the best foreign film category of "Paradise Now," a drama about two West Bank friends recruited to blow themselves up in Tel Aviv.

The controversial film was made by an Israeli Arab director and actors working with a Palestinian crew and locations. The producer was a Jewish Israeli and the funding was European.

Yossi Zur, whose teenage son Asaf was killed in a bus bombing, accused the film of sympathetically portraying a tactic hailed by many Palestinians waging a 5-year-old uprising.

"What they call 'Paradise Now' we call 'hell now', each and every day," Zur told reporters. "It is a mission of the free world not to give such movies a prize."

Film industry experts said it was unheard of for an Oscar nomination to be withdrawn. This year's ceremony is on March 5.

Major Israeli cinema chains have shunned "Paradise Now," with distribution experts citing concern that its portrayal of suicide bombers could spell a low box-office turnout and even boycotts.

The film shows Palestinians bemoaning the travails of life under Israeli occupation, yet its characters also debate whether this warrants resorting to violence.

One of the protagonists takes on his deadly mission to exonerate guilt over a relative who spied for Israel, a comment on the complex pressures within Palestinian society.

Palestinians seeking independence in the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel captured in a 1967 war, won limited self-rule under interim accords that formed the Palestinian Authority. Some Jews opposed ceding the land, seeing it as their biblical birthright.

Fighting that erupted in 2000 and last month's victory in Palestinian elections of the Islamic militant group Hamas have dimmed hopes for peaceful two-state co-existence.

C0-PRODUCTION

Despite its controversial subject, "Paradise Now" won a Golden Globe prize in January, boosting its Oscar prospects.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is already debating how to present the provenance of the film. The academy's Web site had listed it as coming from "Palestine," drawing Israeli complaints as the state does not yet exist.

The controversy around "Paradise Now" compounds an already fraught Academy Awards for Israel, thanks to several nominations garnered by Steven Spielberg's "Munich."

A thriller about the reprisals the Jewish state launched after 11 of its athletes died in a Palestinian raid on the 1972 Olympic Games, Munich has been accused by pro-Israel groups of skewing history and criticizing Israeli security policies.

Spielberg called the film his "prayer for peace."

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