Paradise Now (DVD, 2006)

Shot on location in both Palestine and Israel, PARADISE NOW is an enthralling drama about the possible motivations and actions of two suicide bombers. Director Hany Abu-Assad meticulously researched the subject before co-authoring the script with colleague Bero Beyer, and fought off a few armed Palestinians in Nablus, which is where the bulk of the film's shooting took place. The story follows two young Palestinian men, Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), whose lives in the West Bank city have ground to a halt. But when a shadowy figure named Jamal (Amer Hlehel) offers them a shot at martyrdom by carrying out a suicide attack in Tel Aviv, the two men's lives are suddenly invigorated. The film follows their final days, as they grapple with their consciences, visit family and friends--and in Said's case, a young woman he has been flirting with--and prepare for the attack. But they find both practical and emotional issues stand in their way, leading to an anguished and entirely moving finale to Abu-Assad's film.The difficult production of PARADISE NOW saw crew members abandoning the set amid fears for their lives, location manager Hassan Titi getting kidnapped, a land mine exploding 300 meters away from the set, and Prime Minister Yasser Arafat stepping in to aid the film. Although the subject matter is bleak, Abu-Assad pulls off a masterstroke by lacing the script with black humor, even having the two men nervously joke around as they film their farewell speeches to their families. But ultimately the movie offers a compelling portrait of two men driven to extremes by their beliefs, and examines all the anxieties inherent in such a decision as the one taken with alarming regularity by Palestinian men such as Said and Khaled.