The Attack

An Arabic Israeli surgeon has his life turned upside-down after learning that a loved one has committed a shocking act.

This film is a strong drama while it also takes on a current conflict that continues to be controversial. It is also praiseworthy for seeming not to take sides by the end. In the middle section, it seems to create a negative picture on one side of the conflict only to later expose understanding for that particular side.

While the overall effect can be a downer, this is likely appropriate as this conflict seems unending. There also seems to be a feeling of incompleteness in understanding the motive of a major character who commits a shocking act. But this film's greatest praise could be that it shows sympathy for those truly stuck in the middle: Arabic Israelis who want to integrate into Israeli society while still maintaining a link to their own heritage.

This film is highly recommended.

At times, our world seems littered with random acts of violence. Just a glimpse at any newspaper will sadly confirm that statement. A tragic event can befall anyone. Anytime. Anyplace. Suddenly, one's life can veer from happiness to despair within seconds. The senselessness of a violent act and the unending repercussions that follow will permanently change that life and send one reeling with questions in search of inexplicable answers. That is the premise of the Ziad's Doueiri's taut mystery thriller, The Attack.

Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman), a successful Arab doctor living in Israeli, receives the tragic news that his wife, Kim (Reymond Amsalem), has died as a result of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, only to discover later that his wife may have been the actual bomber. As Amin searches for the truth, he begins to question their former relationship, the political and religious unrest between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and the evil act itself.

This Lebanese film looks at the on-going Arab-Israeli conflict in realistic terms and tries to show both sides without a judgmental knee-jerk reaction. The director sensitively handles this material with much directness and foresight. He rarely flinches from the brutality and blind-sighted extremism that permeates both factions. (Yet this film has been banned from Israeli and many Arab countries due to its controversial subject matter, a reprehensible act which I find troubling and disgraceful in that many will not see this powerful and thought- provoking film.)

Doueiri and Joelle Touma co-scripted this drama based on Yasmina Khadra's novel and the results are literate and quite gripping. As Amin slowly unravels the clues to his wife's possible participation in this heinous crime, the audience is expertly drawn into this complicated ordeal with strong acting, especially by Suliman and Ansalem and Doueiri's solid direction. (Some of the clues do lack the element of surprise and seem a bit too obvious once revealed.)

But The Attack attacks its subject with an honesty and skillfulness that allows moviegoers to contemplate the actions of radicals and fanatics that continue to cause harm to so many innocent victims, shouting their political rants under the guise of religion. There are many powerful scenes containing violent images that show the carnage and destruction caused by years of hatred and revenge. The film elicits emotional debate with its well-developed characters and its straightforward confrontations that build to a stunning denouncement.

The Attack accomplishes its mission head-on and all those involved in this production should be commended for their courage and efforts. This solemn film is unafraid to deal with the complex issue of terrorism, even if fear and animosity have run amok in our changing world. The Attack needs to be seen. GRADE: B+

NOTE: The censorship of this important film only emphasizes the length that controlling government officials and religious zealots will go to to silence its people and promote their irrational agendas to perpetuate this endless cycle of violence. Hopefully, films like The Attack will, one day, bring about some peace and understanding that everyone deserves. Unfortunately, for now, the war rages on.

Based on a novel by Yasmina Khadra, Lebanese director Ziad Douiere's The Attack is about a man without a country. Unlike Philip Nolan in Edward Everett Hale's classic novella who has been exiled from his country forever, however, Dr. Amin Jafaari (Ali Suliman), a respected Israeli Arab doctor, never had a country to begin with. The film, about a man whose life is turned upside down in the course of a single moment, is a gripping suspense thriller, an intimate love story, a poignant personal drama, and a powerful political statement. What it adds up to is superior entertainment. Unfortunately, the film has been banned by the Arab League for the crime of filming in Israel, limiting its potential to reach a bigger audience.

The film opens with Dr. Jafaari delivering his acceptance speech at a prestigious medical conference where he has been honored as the first Arab ever to receive an important medical award. Oddly, his wife Siham (Reymond Amselem) is visiting relatives in Nazareth and is not with him to celebrate the apex of his career. Before going on stage, he receives a call from Siham but tells her that he cannot talk and will call her later. That is the last time that he will ever hear her voice. The next day, while at the hospital, Amin hears a loud explosion and knows from experience that a suicide bombing has taken place and will bring many injured and dying victims to the hospital.

Dr. Jafaari, who has always treated both Arabs and Israelis, works feverishly to save as many lives as possible, even though a Jewish victim refuses to be treated by an Arab and spits in his face. Amin's world of safety and respect is torn apart when he learns that his wife may be the suicide bomber responsible for the death of 17 people including 11 children. Arrested and mercilessly grilled by a relentless Israel Intelligence officer (Uri Gavriel), he is told that the bomber has been positively identified by forensic evidence as his wife but he is in denial. It is only after he receives a letter from Siham in which she tells him not to hate her that he becomes convinced of the impossible.

The letter is mailed from Nablus, a Palestinian city on the West Bank, but Amin withholds the information from his friend Raveed (Dvir Benedek), a high-ranked police officer. Provided sanctuary by Kim Yehuda (Evgenia Dodina), a Russian colleague, Amin is distraught by the realization that his wife of fifteen years had a secret life that she never shared with him. Mirroring Denis Villeneuve's 2010 film Incendies, he travels to Nablus at great personal risk to trace the roots of Siham's involvement, questioning family and friends to find answers. As Amin seeks out those responsible, he is told by his nephew Adel (Karim Saleh) who was deeply involved, "Something snapped in her head," and by Sheik Marwan (Ramzi Makdessi) that he has no business there and to return to Tel Aviv before he brings the Israeli Intelligence down on his people (why Israeli intelligence did not follow him to Nablus is not explained).

An Arab leader in the Christian church tells him, "We're not Islamists and we're not fundamentalists, either. We are only the children of a ravaged, despised people, fighting with whatever means we can to recover our homeland and our dignity," and adds, "I never met your wife," the priest declares, "I wish I had." When Amin learns that Sahim is considered a hero and a martyr with her picture posted all over the city, he begins to feel trapped between his loyalty to the Arab cause and to his Israeli colleagues who opened so many doors for him and his wife. Visiting the rubble of Jenin, a Palestinian refugee camp that was bombed by the Israelis, he starts to sense the anger behind his wife's radicalization.

Doueiri presents a balanced picture of the feelings on both sides, and The Attack is not a propaganda film. Although it is about the seemingly impassable political divide that separates the Israeli and Arab worlds, the film is basically a look at the human cost of the conflict. A sensitive and poetic story of the love between two people shown in flashbacks, the film asks the question – can we ever really know another person, even those we have been intimate with for many years? Can we ever know what goes on in the deepest layer of their being, how they "sense" the world? Can we even know ourselves, who we really are? For Amin, who must put the pieces of his life back together, there are many questions, but few answers, only emotional scars that will last a lifetime.

Dr. Amin Jaafari is a non-practicing Muslim who is a celebrated surgeon in Tel Aviv. He still faces suspicions and racism but he seems to be the pinnacle of integration and secularism. Then everything changes when his Arab Christian wife Siham becomes a suicide bomber who killed 17 people including many children. He is devastated and isolated. He goes to seek the truth by himself.

This movie takes the intractable Palestinian-Isreali conflict down to a personal level. The first half is filled with great tension. However it doesn't carry it all the way through. The reveal, if it could be called that, is not compelling enough. It hints on something more shattering. Also the use of a Christian wife demands something more than the unity-of-oppression argument. It seems like an unnecessary side trip. Mostly it worked because the first half is so strong, and the second half isn't too bad.

While the movie presents in general an unbiased and, for the most part balanced, view of the mutual Israeli - Palestinian misunderstandings, for lack of a better word, I feel that at least on one occasion the director missed to give a counterargument to an obviously fanatic Palestinian religious priest figure's assertion to the effect that the Jews do not belong in "their" territory. Nevertheless, the director does a masterful work in depicting the deep and troublesome moral issues faced by those brave individuals who attempt to bridge the chasm dividing the two "adversaries". The photography and acting are outstanding to say the least.

However, it is most unfortunate, if not morally criminal, for the Arab League, I believe, to ban this movie on the absurd grounds that it was filmed in Israel, and not in "Palestine". This action just adds further insult to injury.