Diameter of the Bomb

I saw this film at the Toronto Film Festival. During the film, there was almost no sound from the audience--no whispering, coughing, rustling. Almost complete silence. The audience was completely caught up in the movie. It looked at the aftermath of one bombing of a bus in Jerusalem and interviewed the family of the victims, other bus drivers, investigating police, those near the scene of the bus bombing and medical people at the treating hospital. The people interviewed left a lasting impression of the horror of the bombing on all those who came into contact with it or the loved ones who died. Yet the film greatly underplayed the emotions.

In Jerusalem on 18/06/02, bus 32A was destroyed during a morning rush hour attack by a suicide bomber. 50 people were hurt and 19 people died as a result. Sixteen months after this attack, the diverse collection of people caught up in the bombing (either personally or having a loved one lost in the attack) reflect on what happened.

Given the power in the subject matter, I was quite looking forward to this film because I had hoped it would do a great job of pushing its point forward and educating beyond the specifics of the suicide attack on bus 32A. Certainly the level of access to the people involved (families of victims and of perpetrators) suggested that it would have a great base to build on. It is a real shame then that the film does little beyond this specific story. Of course this is still quite moving and interesting but the subject demanded a wider picture (at least to me I thought it did). I wanted it to help me understand the wider politics and problems beyond the loss of these specific people – it sounds harsh but the film should have used them better to deliver a story and a point on several levels and not just the human one that it operated on.

The contributions don't really help it do this though as they are all, of course, full of grief and loss. However the audience can only feel so much from this and I did become quite jaded by it after a while. The access to the bomber's family was good and made for an impacting and depressing scene, but the makers didn't do much with it or push the topic at all. Overall then a really disappointing documentary. It does have some value at the personal level but lacks the bigger picture context that could have made it a much more valuable film.