Sayid and Khaled are good friends. They work in the same auto repair shop. They live on the east bank of the Jordan River - Palestinian refugees, a pair of soon-to-be martyrs (Kalai German) suicide bombers.
The day before "Paradise": I
met Su Hua, a Palestinian woman who was born in France and grew up in Morocco, at the auto repair factory Sayid. It was obvious that he was in love with this different woman, at least to him. So when Khaled was smoking a hookah with him, he inevitably brought it up to amuse his old friend, but Sayid got angry. Perhaps, in his view, it became a sin, a sin brought about by the inability to attain happiness. Afterwards, while they both went about their usual things, Sayid was confronted by his brother why he wore his favorite T-shirt to work - no wonder it looked so ill-fitting; Khaled argues in the restaurant The crimes of collaborators. Sayid brought Jamal to the house for the night, and his mother warmly entertained the guests. Khaled was playing with his youngest brother, how he adored him.
At night, Said couldn't sleep, and sneaked out of the house to see Su Hua. Su Hua was delighted and puzzled by his abnormal behavior. She made fun of him for being too fond of sweets. She asked him what kind of life he liked, What kind of hobbies do you like, what kind of movies and books you like, and Said just said that he hadn't seen a movie for many years, because the only movie theater was burned in revenge for the Israelis. For a moment, he really showed the happiness that a man should have when he is immersed in love, but it turned into sadness in an instant. When breaking up, Su Hua's bright eyes stared at him and asked, will you come again? Maybe, Sayid lowered his head to avoid making eye contact.
"Heaven" day:
Jamal and another member of the organization led them to the "base", an old warehouse. As a rule, they had to record a "speech" like all "martyrs" -- why they did it, under what name, and so on. In front of the camera, Khaled looked at the script like all the dead men, and recited it in indignation, but the videographer told him that it was not recorded. After debugging for a long time, Khaled could not concentrate, and finally got it. , but Khaled thoughtlessly pointed at the camera and told his mother to go to the cheaper store to buy a filter (the drinking water on the east bank of the Jordan River is in poor condition, and a filter must be used to remove impurities), because I forgot to tell my mom when I came out in the morning.
Everything was ready, and Jamal took them to the operation. On the way, he told them that this operation was very important, and the organization had planned for a long time to cause heavy damage to the Israelites. Sayid absent-mindedly asked Khaled if this had to be the case. This is the glory, we will be martyrs, Khaled insisted.
Unfortunately, things backfired. Things went wrong at the very beginning of the operation. Something went wrong with the responder on the Israeli side. The two got separated on the way to escape. Khaled returned to the "base", while Said was wandering in the West Bank. Wandering aimlessly, at a bus stop, he almost decided to detonate the bomb on his body, but he didn't know why he gave up. Back at the base, Khaled was told that if he couldn't find Sayid before dark, he would cancel the plan, so he started looking for his friend. Frustrated, Sayid returned to the east bank unknowingly, came to the house, leaned against the window secretly, and the camera left his mother's lost face. Khaled went to any place he could find, and finally he decided to go to Su Hua. Su Hua told him that Sayid had indeed come to her just now. He kissed her, but at the same time made it clear that he and she were Different, the daughter of a martyr, the son of a collaborator. Then Khaled revealed the truth of the matter unconsciously, and Su Hua fiercely asked why, why did she do this, why she gave up her life, and made the people around her sad, Khaled retorted from anger to gradually silence. . . . . .
At last they found Sayid, lying on his father's grave, looking out into the night sky.
The day after "Paradise":
"I was born in a refugee camp and I lived in the West Bank only once in my lifetime. I was six years old."
"I was ten when my father was executed. He was a good man, but he was not in good health. All of this was the occupation's fault."
"It's not worth living without dignity. All, if we both Remember, day in and day out, our shame, our vulnerability, the world sees it all. I want them to know that if we're not safe, neither are they.
" They, however, can only communicate that way. The bad thing is that they have proven to the world that they are victims, but how can they be both persecutors and victims at the same time?"
"I don't want to be a refugee."
Sayid and Khaled hit the road. There was no accident this time, they arrived at their destination smoothly and were ready to implement the action. Khaled was shaken, and Su Hua's words filled his head:
"Do we have to express our voices in this way?"
"Why hurt the people around you?"
"If you do that, then How is it different from those Israeli soldiers who slaughtered innocent civilians?"
"What if nothing changes and the world remains indifferent?"
"Sayed, I have changed my mind, Su Hua is right, we are not different. No choice. Come back with me."
"No, you go back." Said closed the door and left himself outside.
The "Now" of "Paradise":
Photographs by Sayid.
Silent
Su Hua stared, closed, and
silently
Jamal squatted with tears.
Silent
leaders put on their cloaks.
Silent
Sayid's mother looked out the window in despair.
Silent
Khaled collapsed in the back seat of the car, crying.
The silent
bus was full of people. A pair of Israeli soldiers stood talking, and a man and a woman on the left made fun of each other. . . . . . The camera pans to Sayid, wobbly, focusing on his eyes—absence. Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly --
suddenly white.
Curiously, this film about Palestinian suicide bombers, or, as many critics put it, "glorifying suicide bombers", is the work of an Israeli director. During the film's release, it was protested by many Jewish groups, and some theaters made it clear that it would never be uploaded. I don't know if these judgments are made because they really think that way, or if they just don't watch the movie at all because of their own assumptions. As far as I am concerned, there is no trace of fanaticism and hypocrisy, more like the sand on the east bank of the Jordan River, rough and desolate. I would rather trust the director to present it as best he can.
This is not a critique, it is more like an expectation that one day people are not ready to be killed but to have a revelry, one day, the barrels of guns are not filled with bullets but flowers, one day, heaven exists in Now.
Can it be achieved? If you don't want to fall into a kind of warm-hearted generalization, I would say, even if you think about it this way, isn't it good?
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