Omar

In places like the West Bank truth is the first casualty. This fictional tale takes real life tensions and offers very believable characters to make that point.

The 3 friends (Omar, Tarek & Amjad) plus the sister Nadia are constantly kept off balance by the political tensions that come from living in Palestine.

The director manages to add just enough warmth and naturalness to the various story loops to keep us on side with the lead characters.

The Israeli lead protagonist (Rami) has clearly read Machievelli's the Prince. He uses half truth, insinuation and educated guesses to rattle Omar and his friends.

Just when you think you know what is going to happen it all changes. This is a great movie. I saw it at a film festival but I hope it goes on to wider release.

"Omar" (2013 release from Palestine; 96 min.) brings the story of Omar and his friends Tarek and Amjad. As the movie opens, we see Omar climbing over the separation wall (diving Israel from the West bank) to see the girl of his dreams, Nadja. Tarek pushes Omar and Amjad to be more active in their fight against the Israelis, and at one point they shoot and kill an Israeli border guard, but it isn't long before Omar is apprehended by the Israeli police. Given the choice of being jailed for many years, or instead to be set free and lure Tarek into the hands of the Israelis, Omar chooses the latter. In a separate story line, we learn that Amjad also has his eyes on Nadja. Is Omar really going to snitch on his friends? Who will win Nadja's heart? To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: first, when you get a Palestine movie in which there is conflict with the Israelis, you automatically expect that this will be a political movie. Yet it really isn't the case at all. Instead, this movie looks at the conflicts of being a reluctant informant, and the resulting mind games being played. Second, this is an equally compelling family drama, with two guys chasing the same girl, of course in the context of strict family traditions and even stricter religion. Third, The movie contains a number of great performances, including Adam Bakri in the title role and the beautiful Leem Lubany in the role of Nadja. Last but certainly not least, I never saw the end coming, and it frankly was a little bit of a shock.

This movie scored an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Movie, which will be decided tomorrow. The category is pretty stacked this year, and I doubt that "Omar" will win. That doesn't take anything away from this movie, though, which I found compelling from start to finish. I saw the movie last weekend at the West End Cinema in Washington DC, and the early matinée showing where I saw it, was reasonably well attended. This movie certainly deserves to be seen (as are all the other Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Movie), be it in the theater or on DVD/Blu-ray. "Omar" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

If the saga of Omar were a wine, it would have to be described as "Shakespearian, with notes of Dante, Orwell, Golding, and Sartre." Omar is a basically decent, seemingly uncomplicated young bakery worker who is inexorably drawn into the violent political warfare of the West Bank through his love for a girl, his increasingly radicalized circle of friends from childhood, and Israeli injustice. Right up to its unexpected, yet expectable, ending Omar is more victim than protagonist.

Clearly anti-Israeli in tone, the film explores the many reasons why Palestinians maintain an abiding antagonism toward Israel and Israelis. A driving metaphor in the film is the 25 foot high wall that Omar scales regularly to visit Nadia, his intended. Although The Wall was ostensibly designed to separate the Jewish West Bank settlements from Palestinians, it even more effectively separates Palestinian towns, families, and friends from one another--and from their water supplies in many places. To visit a neighboring town along is course has often become virtually impossible for having to detour long distances around the wall's tortuous path and passing through multiple checkpoints. Similarly, the Israeli military and police strive to divide and isolate individuals and groups psychologically just as the wall does physically. It's a classic use of divide-and-conquer strategy, which is one of the film's principal plot threads. Whatever your views of the Israel-Palestine situation, this thoroughly absorbing film will challenge them.

I watched Omar (2013, directed by Hany Abu-Assad) last night and thought how well Abu-Assad translated a twisting, conniving, chaotic, and disruptive sociopolitical situation to the mis-en-scene and plot points of his film. The story hooked me the moment it began and didn't let go until the end, or perhaps even after it ended. My only complaint came from initially thinking that the plot points seemed forced and overly-contrived. However, once I had time to think and discuss the film with my wife Hannah, I began to see how the story followed the situation in the West Bank. The character's lives are surrounded by conceit and violence. They maneuver through their neighborhoods over walls and through back alleys. This mindset is encapsulated in the story.The acting and cinematography furthers its cause. We are left scratching our heads, but that's what the citizens of the West Bank do year-after-year and the I believe that's the greater point Abu-Assad is trying to make.

In a world according to Paradise Now director Hany Abu-Assad, death, murder and revolt is currently a right of passage to manhood and way of life in the West Bank. Hearts-pounding, sweat dripping, pulses racing; three friends and militants affiliated with the Aksa Martyrs Brigades find themselves organizing a sniper attack on an Israeli Military post that will find their friendships, loyalties and lives changed forever.

Omar is the name of the film and is also the name of our main protagonist (Adam Bakri) one of the three friends whose sensitivity, loyalty, passion for life, and love of the cause are unflinching. Omar is a Palestinian living in the West Bank who, like most, are subjected to an intolerable amount of injustice and mistreatment as anyone else currently living in the West Bank from the Israeli Defence Force. The location of the West Bank, has just as much if not more to say itself than the film in question, but for the sake of the flow of this review, let's not get into a discussion of history. Taut, riveting and desperate, Omar is a suspenseful film in constant pursuit of truth.

Omar is a freedom fighter, led by his childhood friend and best buddy Tarek (Iyad Hoorani), and joined by their younger, marshmallowy and goofy friend Amjad (Samer Bisharat). The three friends plan out a violent and extremely dangerous mission to help the Palestinian cause. Although their efforts are valiant, essentially, they become killers. Omar tells a story of one man's life in the grande scheme of things and in the on-going battle between Jews and Arabs for a Holy Land; a land who's soil is drenched with the bloody memories of the lives once lived.

Part high-tension chase film, part intricate prison/interrogation drama, Omar could easily be confused with a political-thriller that would and could be directed by Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips); thanks to the film's effortless ability to share many of the same idealistic political views of its people, its military, its innocent and its guilty. Throughout the film, it seems that Omar is the only one in the group getting hassled, arrested and tortured, until, he mistakenly confesses about the sniper shooting to the officer in charge of him Rami (Waleed Zuaiter). As a Palestinian freedom fighter, Omar is reminded over and over again that there is nothing worse than collaborating with Jews, not even death. After facing countless attacks within the prison, being accused of treason and as collaborating with Jews, Omar's greatest challenge is to convince his peers, fellow patriots, the love of his life Nadia (Leem Lubany), as well as himself of the choices and actions he must make to clear his name and garner the trust that seems far from reach.

As the plot of the film progresses, Omar, a once simple baker working outside the West Bank, daydreaming of a Honeymoon with his girlfriend and hopeful wife Nadia, becomes a conspirator of each person around him and their elaborate plans against the opposition. Omar climbs the wall the divides his worlds so that he may exchange simple love letters with Nadia and they try to plan their future together, a future that soon becomes thwarted by a Defense Force that will do anything to get Tarek, even if it means crumbling Omar's world. The film quickly progresses to a spellbinding and exhausting flee of terror from authorities and so many questionable ideals which each side exhibits.

Filmmaker Abu-Assad, who was born in Nazareth, and is no stranger to the dangers of life in the West Bank, uses Omar and his fine skills as a director to catch up and keep pace with the athletic, constantly in-pursuit protagonist. Beaten, bruised, bloodied and broken, Omar represents a proud and very real population of Arab people. Between discreet close-up panning shots, to questionable editing and pacing, the film seems almost documentary-esque. Thankfully, Abu-Assad handles the film gracefully and unbiased, presenting the very real terrors endured by either side.

Omar then becomes a film that allows anyone, including audiences, to "believe the unbelievable", even if the final ending feels forced, and completely unexpected. Perhaps, that's the point though. Like any good hunter, the best way to lure one's prey, is to entice them with the promise of nourishment (in our case knowledge) without consequence. Omar teases us with this, and then quickly rips it away, giving us only confusion and questions unanswered. Only few things remain once the screen fades to black, and one of them is the reality of the people living through hardship and the far-fetched promise of change. The other promise Omar leaves us with is the promise of the power of love–whether that love be the love of a woman, the love of family, the power and love of friendship or love of country, the choice is up to you.