Caption: Ali Suliman, Hany Abu-Assad, Kais Nashef and Masoud Amralla Al Ali at a press conference to announce the opening gala of ‘Paradise Now’ at Dubai International Film Festival.
HANY Abu-Assad is bemused. His aunt, who was born in Palestine but had moved to Syria, cannot visit her mother in her home-country because she holds a Syrian passport. Had she been holding a US passport, homecoming would have been her reality.
Fazed by the everyday hardships of Palestinians, Hany did what he has always dreamt: The aeroplane engineer took to his passion, and directed Paradise Now, a moving tale of two Palestinian suicide bombers.
In fact, the tag “suicide bombers” is a misnomer when applied to the protagonists – Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman). They work in a garage and are picked to accomplish a mission in Israel after a gap of about two years. Said carries an extra baggage: He has to outgrow the ignominy that has haunted him since he was 10 years old; the bitterness of living as the son of a “collaborator.”
However, unlike Khalid, he is more level-headed, even detached. So when the mission goes awry, and Khalid shies away from pursuing it further, Said has to struggle through his dilemma alone. And apart from the political cause, he has a personal point to make — to wipe away the stigma of the “collaborator” that has haunted his family.
So, are acts of suicide bombing triggered by personal reasons than a firmly held political agenda? Hany does not have a direct answer. He wants to open questions, and that is precisely what Paradise Now accomplishes.
For Diff-goers of last year, who had watched Hamburg Cell, the opening gala this year looks like one that straddles familiar territory. If Hamburg Cell explored the frame of mind of those who carried out the Sept. 11 bombings, Paradise Now is about 24 hours in the lives of the two youngsters, hand-picked, almost out of the blue, to execute a death mission.
Hany likes to emphasise the difference. He does not compare his film with those that address issues of terror as applied in a Western context. “Our land is occupied and Israel is forcibly trying to drive our people out as a plan of ethnic cleansing,” he says. He differentiates it from the “American occupation in Iraq.” “The methods (of resistance) might look the same but the aspirations are different, the cause is different.”
And it is this difference, one that he understands as a Palestinian though not holding a Palestinian passport, which he tries to underscore in Paradise Now. He says that the non-Palestinian passport has helped him move about in relative freedom despite the vague threats that existed against his film. “But there are many other elements that helped me (make the film),” including his mother’s overt influence.
Hany says he is not a politician but a filmmaker who is trying to capture the Palestinian cause as a “cinematic image.” He has no advice for aspiring Palestinian filmmakers because Hany believes that each one must discover his own rhythm in filmmaking.
Produced on a budget of $2 million involving Palestine, France, Germany and the Netherlands, Paradise Now had won the Blue Angel award for Best European Film at the Berlin International Film Festival 2005. It is also the official entry of Palestine to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. “We do not have a country yet and we represent a ‘case’ rather than a country at the Oscars,” he says.
Masoud Amralla Al Ali, programmer of Arabian Nights and Emerging Emaratis at Diff, says that the selection of Paradise Now as the opening gala of the festival only asserts how Diff has come to stand for human causes and become a venue for opening up dialogue.
Ali Suliman, more vocal than Kais Nashef in real life too, says he was aware of the sensitive nature of the film. But for one who lives in Palestine, “these are every day realities. The real life is much more complicated and sensitive than the film. I cannot refuse such a role.”
Hany says he had tried to steer away from stereotypical notions of suicide bombers. “Every one of them has a story,” and it is that human side he chose to depict with his film. He is going to continue upholding the Palestinian cause in his three forthcoming ventures. One of the films will be shot entirely in Dubai, and after Diff, he will be scouting for locations in the emirate.
Though the film has been a talking point, and is even being screened in Israel, Hany isn’t sure of its end result. “Will this liberate us? I am still waiting for an answer.”
— Rajeev Nair
