OMAR

In the opening scene we see Omar scaling the impossible high wall that the Occupying Forces have erected that not just separates Palestinians from Jews, but also Palestinians from each other. He is going to meet up with his best friends Tarak and Amjad to plan their first ever terrorist activity.  Tarak mentions a Brigade Commander but it seems evidently when the three of them set out a few nights later, they are acting on their own accord. They succeed in their intentions of killing an Israeli soldier, but that puts them immediately on a Wanted list as there is no way that the authorities are going to let anyone get away with assassinating one of their own.

With great speed they track the three men down in the days that follow and manage to capture Omar, and its soon clear to them that there is a traitor in their midst who has betrayed them.  Behind bars, Omar is subject to some very brutal and vicious torture that is carried out by his interrogators but even so he refuses to give in and name names.  He is however later tricked by one of them dressed as another prisoner to make an incriminating statement that could get him a 90 year jail sentence if he ever went  to Court. Instead he reluctantly agrees to act as a spy for the Israelis and he is freed from jail on the condition that he names and locate the actual gunman.

Whilst this has all been going on Omar has been conducting a secretive and totally pure courtship with Nadia who is Tarak's younger sister.  So far it has just consisted on stolen moments together and the frequent exchange of letters but the couple have declared their love for each other and now want to find the right moment to seek Tarak's approval.

Meanwhile learning of the deal that Omar has been forced to agree too, Tarak decides that Omar should give the Israelis the information that they want and they will set up an ambush when they come and collect.  It all goes horribly wrong and Omar is once again back in jail and beaten up not just by the Israeli authorities this time but also by the other inmates who believe that Omar had collaborated with the other side so that the ambush would fail.  He pleads with his Captors to be let out one last time on the condition that he will not fail to bring them Tarak dead or alive.

Now on the outside again even Nadia accuses him of being the group's traitor, but at the same time, it is obvious that she has secrets of her own to hide.  As does Amjad too, and it looks like with the Israelis close on everyone's trail, no-one will get out of this in tact.

This very taut and tense thriller that is part romance and also part melodrama humanises a very tough way of life in an Occupied country where really no-body is a winner.  Omar, a baker by trade, is too emotional and sensitive to be the hard-bitten killer the other Palestinians want him to be.  He would risk it all, including his life, for Nadia but his faith in her and the 'cause' are so tested, it makes him re-think everything.

Omar is played by a relatively unknown actor Adam

Bakr in a stirring and moving performance.  It helps too that the man is strikingly handsome and extremely fit as constantly trying to avoid the Police he seems to spend half the movie jumping from one roof top to another.  The final scene stuns you into silence, and rounds out what is a rather wonderful gripping movie that was good enough to be nominated for a Best Foreign Picture Oscar.

★★★★★★★★★

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5 BROKEN CAMERAS

Emid Burnat is a Palestinian farmer who works the same land that his family have done for generations in Bil'in on the West Bank and this movie is his firsthand account when the village is threatened by the encroaching Israeli Settlements.  This highly personal documentary film bears witness to how the non-violent resistance by the villagers to having their land is appropriated, is met with an armed military force that is both shocking and  deadly.

In 2005, Burnat's fourth son Gibreel is born at the very same time that the Israelis start building a Separation Barrier that annexes part of village's farm lands.  Burnat gets his first camera ostensibly to record the latest addition to his family, but actually turns it on to the resistance movement that starts to deal with this latest threat to their livelihoods.

Very soon into the conflict, these events begin to affect his family and his own life. Daily arrests, violent attacks, bulldozers knocking down olive trees, the loss of life and regular raids in the village scare his family. One by one his brothers and friends get arrested and jailed, as he eventually does himself. At each setback the villagers persistence and resourcefulness remains consistently high resulting in the Security Forces fighting back even dirtier as they start paying night time visits to the village to arrest young teenage boys.

Throughout the next 5 years as his son grows up and the protest continues to escalate due to the controversial aggressive response by the Israeli security forces, without any regard for his personal safety, Burnat keeps filming right from the centre of the action. Five of his cameras get damaged one way or another and the third one actually took the bullet intended for him thus saving his life, although leaving him seriously wounded. 

In 2007 the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the Barrier be re-routed, but this was simply ignored as more and more Settlements were built on the land.  Eventually some four years after the Court Ruling did some small parts of the lands get restored and the Barrier was removed.  Meanwhile not too far in the distance, the Israels constructed a giant concrete wall instead.

As the need to co-ordinate their resistance more grew, the villagers were joined by some impassioned Israeli activists who supported the cause throughout, and it is equally interesting to note that Burnat turned over all his footage to Guy Davidi, an Israeli filmmaker, for him to co-direct the finished film with him.

Mr Burnat's roots may have been in farming but his observations particularly in his philosophical narration has turned him into a fine journalist.  The way that he relates each passing episode of the villages turmoil to how it will effect his young growing family gives the whole piece a very personal resonance.  Whatever one's on take on the deeply entrenched views of both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, when unarmed men and children are fatally shot right in front of Burnat's camera, then it is impossible not to be positively angry and embittered too

It's a tough movie to watch but should be compulsory viewing just to admire how one tiny village stood up to a big bully and refused to back down.  Also check out 'BUDRUS' from 2007 also about another Palestinian village's fight back when the Israeli's threaten to seize all their land too.

★★★★★★★★

SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN

Galia has spent the last year recovering from a terrorist bus bombing in Jerusalem, and the extent of her trauma is profound. She suffers from unbearable burn scars that cover her back, intermittent panic attacks and a fractured memory. When her boyfriend Oren—also a victim of the attack—is removed from life support, Galia discovers that she needs to  try and remember the events that surrounded the bombing in order to move forward with her life.

A crucial discovery is when she learns that a recuse worker at the scene had pronounced her dead for seven minutes before she revived.  She is told that there are some souls who rise to heaven, only to return if that is deemed necessary.  And then she comes across a  patient and handsome stranger named Boaz who looks like someone she may have known before

In this his first feature film director Omri Givron weaves clues throughout as the story unwinds, but nevertheless the ending in this intriguing wee thriller is still totally unexpected.

Seven Minutes in Heaven picked up some awards when it first surfaced in 2008 and did the rounds of some Jewish Film Festivals, and is now finally released in DVD.  A gentle slow paced intelligent movie, beautifully acted and with some great photography, and which even though its script has a few too many clichéd lines. it is still nevertheless a small delight.


★★★★★★★