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Paradise Now

“The two young Palestinian suicide-bombers at the centre of this provocatively adrenalised film are hardly the fundamentalist zealots of legend. Khaled and Saïd have grown up together in Nablus and work for a pittance at a garage. They seem less threatening than testy, two guys at a loose end in a depressingly stunted environment. Both have signed up to serve the cause, despite the passionate objections of their friend Suha, daughter of a celebrated martyr. When they’re given a night’s notice that they’re being sent to Tel Aviv in a retaliatory strike at Israeli military, they are ordered to act naturally, to conceal from their families and friends that they are about to die. The air of unreality about what’s been set in motion becomes more and more unnerving as they’re briefed, fitted out as human bombs and film their stilted martyrs’ statements. Once they are loose in the field director Hany Abu-Assad wracks up the suspense, compounding their moral panic – can they both actually go through with this?—with our own terror of impending detonation.” – New Zealand International Film Festival 2005

 

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The Netherlands/Israel/Germany/France 2004

Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Producers: Hengameh Panahi, Amir Harel, Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul, Bero Beyer
Production co: Augustus Film, Hazazah Film, Lama Films, Razor Film, Lumen Film
Screenplay: Hany Abu-Assad, Bero Beyer
Photography: Antoine Héberlé
Editor: Sander Vos
Music: Jina Sumedi

With: Kais Nashef (Said), Ali Suliman (Khaled), Lubna Azabal (Suha), Amer Hlehel (Jamal), Hiam Abbass (Said’s mother), Ashraf Barhoum (Abu-Karem)

100 mins, DV (16:9)

In Arabic and Hebrew, with English subtitles

M adult themes

Tauranga Film Society
Wednesday 27 June, 6.20pm

Hamilton Film Society
Monday 30 July, 8.00pm

Pukekohe Film Society
Sunday 19 August, 8.00pm

Waitati Film Society
Tuesday 11 September, 8.00pm

Palmerston North Film Society
Wednesday 26 September, 5.30pm