الجنة الآن

i've been mulling over how to talk about paradise now. the part i most want to talk about is at the end, but that would spoil the whole thing. in any case, i highly recommend the film.

the movie is about a pair of friends living in the west bank who get the order from an unidentified terrorist group to blow themselves up in tel aviv. the film follows them during what would be their last 48 hours of life and at various times they both express doubts about the morality and effectiveness of suicide bombing. the big question hanging over the film is whether they will really go through with it. the movie isn't perfect, but for a good half of the film i was on the edge of my seat wondering what they would do.

even though the film is partially an israeli production, it's from a thoroughly palestinian point of view. the harshness of the occupation is taken as a given, even as the methods of resistance are questioned. that viewpoint might bother some people, but i actually thought the lack of any pretense of "balance" was refreshing. it allowed the film to fully explore a viewpoint that rarely makes it into film (at least films that are shown here).

as i alluded to above, i think there are some problems with the ending, but i don't want to ruin the film by discussing them here. you'll just have to go and see it so that we can have that discussion later.