Palestinian bomber unlikely star of Israeli film
Israeli director Dror Zehavi tries to humanize a Palestinian suicide bomber in his new film.
By Reuters Tags: Israel terrorismA Palestinian suicide bomber is the unlikely star of a new Israeli film billed by its director as an effort to destroy prejudices that fuel conflict in the Middle East.
Scheduled to be screened in early 2008, the film stands to make cinematic history in Israel, where movie-makers tend to shy away from treating the controversy of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Its makers say that by humanizing the bomber - named Tarek and portrayed as coming from the West Bank town of Tulkarm - they hope to show Israelis the complex motives behind many such attacks in the Jewish state.
"Behind the belts and the suicide bombers and the victims, there are real people, with feelings, motives and fears," Israeli director Dror Zehavi said during a recent filming session in Tel Aviv.
Tarek is a Palestinian youth who infiltrates Israel from the West Bank wearing a belt packed with explosives which he intends to detonate in a busy outdoor market in Tel Aviv.
The bomb's switch fails to operate, and he seeks the help of an unwitting Israeli electrician, whom he ends up befriending, in addition to another young Israeli woman who lives on the same block.
He never completely backs out of his plan, feeling compelled to carry out the attack to placate militants back in the West Bank who have threatened to kill his father if he reneges.
But he does make an effort to keep his Israeli friends out of harm's way, say the filmmakers, who have given the movie the working title of "Shabat Shalom Maradona" (Good Sabbath Maradona), a nod to Tarek's passion for soccer and Argentine superstar Diego Maradona.
"Our goal in making this film is to build a bridge between Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, to allow for reconciliation despite the very explosive situation in which we live," Zehavi said.
Dozens of suicide bombings have killed more than 400 people in Israel since 2000, though the frequency of these attacks has subsided in recent years. In all some 4,200 Palestinians and 1,030 Israelis have died in fighting and armed attacks in a wave of violence since peace talks failed seven years ago.
StereotypesIn the movie, Zehavi said the would-be bomber's explosives belt "symbolizes the stereotypes that we need to explode".
The bomber "isn't motivated by hatred of Jews or wanting to destroy Israel", Zehavi added. "He's trying to save his father's life."
The movie is based in part on accounts divulged by Israeli security agents, following several thwarted bombings in which suspects have said their motives were more personal than ideological.
While many Israeli films portray war and the hallowed military of a country that has fought seven wars and confronted two Palestinian uprisings over 60 years, Zehavi's is the first to tackle the sensitive subject of suicide bombings.
His film is sure to stir controversy in Israel. Critics have already panned the subject. A recent article in the Maariv daily newspaper denounced it as a "cultural bomb".
Israelis protested when the award-winning Palestinian movie "Paradise Now" - about a suicide bomber pair - was nominated for a best foreign language film Oscar in 2005, a prize it ended up losing to South Africa's "Tsotsi".
Shredi Jabarin, a young Israeli Arab actor who plays Tarek, expects to weather some criticism for his role: "I have to play a character that everyone hates, yet I have to try to make the audience love him. It's complicated," Jabarin says.
Zehavi cites recent Israeli-Palestinian efforts to renew stalled peace talks as a sign Israel is ready for such a film.
Producers also hope for a box office boost from at least one popular actor in a key supporting role.
Shlomo Vishinsky, a member of one of Israel's foremost theatre groups, will add populist punch in the role of the electrician who befriends Tarek.
Vishinsky's own son died two years ago in a gun battle with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. His personal tragedy hasn't shaken his conviction of a need to compromise for peace, the actor said in an interview.
He said he hopes the movie can drive home the point that both Israelis and Palestinians have shed too much blood in conflict.
"You never know what goes on in their [Palestinians'] heads. We think they just want to be some religious martyr, but this guy is acting more on personal than political reasons," Vishinsky said.
"After all that has happened, most people just want peace."
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The relevant motivations are not of the suicide bombers but of those who send them. It is to kill as many Jews as possible (they never call them "Israelis"). They obviously consider it a noble mission. The question, therefore, is why dont they strap the bombs on their own bodies, or send their own children to reap the heavenly rewards?
This is insane. Inside their minds? I don't care what's inside their minds. I don't need to understand. You can only stop terrorists by getting to them first. Not by proliferating their ideas or motives. Stop!
How are the Palestinians you so despise different from the partisans who attacked the Germans during WWII? Each attack the invaders who took over their country and oppress their people. You will probably not be happy with the comparison, but I suspect if you thought about it (you won't) you would see great similarities in their motivation and actions.
While I do not in any way concede to the idea of killing civilian Israelis by Palestinian suicide bombers, I do not really see any difference between what these suicide bombers do and what the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) do. Both are carrying out collective punishment on civilians. The difference is that most Palestinian bombers are sacrificing their lives to make a point and out of desperation. The "noble" Israeli army, however, is unfortunately doing it for the same reasons its old versions did in 1948....
"Zehavi's is the first to tackle the sensitive subject of suicide bombings" False. I know of at least another one: "The Bubble"
suicide bombers are the results of islamo fascist societies, the ennemy of any democratic human being. has this filmmaker an e personal ethic???
please try to refrain from justifying any kind of terrorist action.i am sure you can find human behavior patterns even in Hitler.personal motives , as the threat on the villains fathers life is by No means an excuse to perform perfidious acts as blowing up an open market and incidentely killing as much people as possible.
you sure do watch too much FOX NEWS (sad excuse of a news outlet)!!!
most probably not..... israeliscare only about themselves.... not the huge suffering they cause. this is their biggest weakness.
My sympathies to Mr. Shlomo Vishinsky for the loss of his son, and to the thousands of Palestinians whom his son's comrades in the IOF killed and continue to kill during the occupation. But I think one can probably get a pretty good idea of what's going on inside the heads of the Palestinians they kill, and those who survive them: they want to stop being killed, widowed, orphaned, starved, humiliated, and occupied. For a sequel, director Dror Zehavi might consider a film about what it means to be a Palestinian mother whose child is murdered by the IOF. He could show what it's like on the day of the killing, a week later, a month later, a year later, ten years later, twenty years later.
At last we have arrived.Falling in love and understanding your murderers is the hight of enlightment.
Reminds me of the films that try to give morality to the S.S. and Gestapo. Why do Israeli's have this need to be loved by the people that want to see them dead? Why glorify a homicide bomber even though it is fiction? The arabs are characterizing Jews in a more repugnant way than the Germans did (and this fete is quite difficult to accomplish) and the Israeli's are legitimizing and making excuses for these homicide maniacs. All of us want peace but not at the expense of our lives and security. I am assuming these filmmakers are lefties...G-d help them and the Israeli population because they will bring an end to Israel as we know and love her.