for my father (imdb) is about tarek, a would-be suicide bomber who travels from the west bank to a crowded tel aviv market and then discovers that the firing mechanism is broken. he tries to get it repaired, and then falls in with a group of good-hearted israelis as he waits around for the part he ordered to come in so he can complete his mission. among them, a pretty young former orthodox woman, who falls for tarek in the two days it takes him to get a new firing pin. the implausibility of the premise is the first major hurdle for this film. on top of that, there are a series of major plot holes. like why didn't any of tarek's new friends notice that he never changed his clothes? (he couldn't take off his belt or the bomb would go off) speaking of which, why didn't tarek just unlatch his belt in the market when the firing mechanism failed? and why did everyone assume that tarek was part of the construction crew working down the street but never wondered why he never had to go to work? or why didn't they wonder why he didn't have any place to stay in the city?
there's also a pretty major flaw in the message of the film. the villain is a racist security guard who assumes tarek is a terrorist just because he is an arab. the guard is clearly portrayed as the bad guy of the film, all of the sympathetic characters who are tarek's friends rally to his defense whenever the guard harasses him. and yet, the guard's racist assumption is basically right. on the surface the film seems to condemn racism, but that message is completely subverted by the overall plot. a more complex movie might have been able to deal with that contradiction. "for my father" is just not up to the task.
oh well. i've had a pretty good run with this festival up until now. it was only a matter of time before i saw one that i didn't like. at least i got to listen to some arabic. it was a lot easier to understand tarek than those kids in garbage dreams.
