Hany Abu-Assad 2013 Palestine
Starring: Adam Bakri, Leem Lubany, Samer Bisharat, Waleed Zuaiter, Iyad Hoorani
Hany Abu-Assad's Omar is an odd beast. At first it appears to be a resistance picture played out against the backdrop of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (although there's actually little to distinguish it from any other international war) with all its inherent paranoia and double-dealing but it isn't content to settle for that as Ismaël Ferroukhi's 2011 World War 2 piece Free Men did. Instead it hands an equal (if not bigger) amount of screen time to a love triangle between its youthful participants, which would be fine if it was the main thrust of the narrative but after the first few scenes of lighters being taken to genitals and people being chained up and beaten with phone books it's more than a little difficult to accept the warm gentility of Omar and Nadia's secret relationship. One of the problems here is down to the actors playing them, Adam Bakri and Leem Lubany respectively. It's not that either are particularly poor or unlikeable - in fact both are relatively engaging - or even that they overplay their shyest moments, it's that overall there's no real spark between them and as a pair they're too bland to carry the increasingly poor script they're given. This point also comes into play in one of the film's more uncomfortable traits, namely the blurred morality of practically all of the characters. Naturally the line between freedom fighter and terrorist is often dependent on the outlook and circumstances of the individual but here every Palestinian character is not only vehemently against the occupying forces but also wholly cynical and in the end culpable in the cell's violence; strangers allow the guerrillas to burst into their houses and escape via the back window, frail old men help them climb the walls that surround the area no questions asked, children even act as lookouts and pelt military vehicles with stones. Asking the viewer to connect with a traditionally negative character is nothing new, A Clockwork Orange for example confronted us with a gleefully brutal delinquent rapist and made him a eloquent and sympathetic victim of authority, but Bakri has nothing of the maliciously suave charisma of that film's star Malcolm McDowell and as a result it's hard to relate to or support his actions, particularly when he and his comrades set out to kill a soldier, who may in fact have little more choice in his personal involvement than they have. Compounding things even further Omar remains eerily nonchalant throughout his misdemeanours, only finally showing a small amount of personality during the romantic scenes with Lubany. This could be an attempt on Abu-Assad's part to show how despite his youth Omar is experienced enough to be unmoved by the horrors he sees but, if that's the case, the viewer needs to see him doing more than just getting repeatedly arrested. There's also an even more disturbing plot point in the central relationship, that Nadia is not only underage but still at school and Omar is probably pushing twenty. Obviously there are many current news stories about juvenile girls being forced into marriage by their families but this is more than just cultural difference. Here Nadia is given the deciding vote and is even told by her father that she can refuse her suitor. That she doesn't perhaps says something about the intrinsic views on matrimony she's been raised with but it still shocks to see a 14 or 15 year old (we're never actually told her age) going willingly to her nuptials and then to motherhood, dropping her studies to take exams in 'advanced housewifery' along the way. It's an issue that Abu-Assad seems only too aware of, at one point creating a corking scene where, in taking Omar's hand reassuringly, it's shown that Nadia's hands are half the size of his. Unhappily the rest of the film isn't up to that standard and, in lieu of actual storyline development, crams in a plethora of twists that a near-sighted snail with a lot on its mind could see coming. It's such that by the time a revelation appears that actually does surprise the viewer has been so stuffed that the enthusiasm that should be felt has dried up almost entirely. That it's very probably the best acted and most intense scene of the film and that it's followed by yet another sudden turn and a startlingly abrupt ending somehow makes it even more regrettable.
