Rosh Hashanah eve in America; the eve of a new Kristallnacht in Germany? David Medienkritik reports on the new cinematic fave in his homeland, "Paradise Now":
Said is a suicide bomber in Nablus. Long trained for this job, he and his friend Khaled don't hesitate a moment when their organization's leader announces they've drawn the winning straw and will be allowed to stage a double mass murder the next day in TelAviv...although Khled gets cold feet at the last moment, Said goes through with it and blows himself up with a bus load of jews. Mission accomplished. So much for the plot of the German-Dutch-French co-produciton "Paradise Now".
Hany Abu-Assad's film is the first fruit of the "World Cinema Fund", the mutual film sponsorship of the Berlinale and Federal Cultural Foundation.
The evangelical film jury names "Paradise Now" as the film of the month because it invites the viewer to "think about the assasin's motives".
Amnesty International distinguishes it with its peace prize because it's neither "lecturing nor moralizing".
That's true: No one in the film says that it might morally wrong, to mass murder the innocent.
Most German critics praise the "sophisticated" presentation.
Mmmm, the deep thought processes that go into slaughtering Jews - hey, it's just art, man! The Europeans still speak the same anti-semetic language they always did, just in a different code...whether it's using the phrase "Filthy Zionists", or depicting the mass murder of Jews as an avant-garde theatrical event...it is all done with the EU's blessing, and cash. And showing to rave reviews in Germany, natch.
Thankfully, I have the media to remind me that as an American, I am the truly evil one...
Link to Medienkritik here: http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2005/10/no_to_paradise_.html
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