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Unlike some other people, I did find this movie to be a great one. Amos Gitaï show us the middle east complexity through three beautiful characters, one Israelian, one Palestinian and one American with Jewish extracts. Those three women are supposed to represent three "forces" who can play a part in the situation over there : Israel, Palestine and the "international community" represented by Natalie Portman's character Rebecca. Rebecca appears to be just a witness to what is happening. Although she tries to get involved and to ease the conflict down her efforts remain without effect. The movie shows as well that Israelians and Palestinians could talk to each other instead of getting at war. They have quite the same problems, they live on the same land, they are quite the same people, they have quite the same cultural background. but some have to forget about their fear and parano while the others need to stop fanatism growing within their ranks. Amos Gitaï wants to show us as well that Israelians should accept to talk to moderate Palestinians. It's the only way to move towards a better tomorrow otherwise fanatics will be their only opponents and there will be no possible dialogue. Some people here have not understood a thing in the movie. I read two main wrong critics. One was about the language used in the movie. It seemed disturbing for some people that the movie is not only in English. But truth is not everybody in the world speaks English ! In Israel, the official language is Hebrew. Palestinians speak Arabic. So it's normal that those three languages (with English) are used and spoken in the movie. Otherwise it would be just sci-fi or American fantasm ! The other thing is about Rebecca's crying at the beginning of the movie. She does not cry about her loss. She and we don't give a damn about this loss. As a near to be witness of the situation in the Middle East, she cries about that, about her uselessness, about the vicious circle which make good people killing each others. That's why as well she leaves running at the end of the movie because she can't help Israel and Palestine to get along. She can't understand their fighting. Thank you Mister Amos Gitaï.

I was twice lucky to watch this TV-series. First of all because it was shown just once in France and on a cable channel. Then it's such a good programed ! Actors/actresses are brilliant, and 15 years later you can spot the names of David Arquette, Heather McComb, Michael Madsen or Billy Bob Thornton in the cast ! It could easily be the cast of a feature film. And of course you have Coppola. It's also full of poetry, nostalgia and every situation is shown in a humanistic way. It's warm, intelligent. Dialogues and characters are good. Too bad for me I can't find the right words in English to describe all the feelings I had when I watched it. Anyway this series is like a family album you open on a cold night. You watch pictures and you remember the events linked with them. They can be sad or happy moments but what is sure is they were relevant for you and they shaped what you've become.