‘Paradise now’ was the name of the movie scheduled that day at the university film club. I still remember when I used to go every Tuesday and Thursday to that old theater on the Science campus. Sometimes my brother would go to see Italian movies without subtitles. Sometimes it was Silvia who sat there reading the brochure. Sometimes I had the privilege to watch old silent films with Carmen. But mostly it was just me; alone in that nearly-empty theater. Many years have past since that Spring evening when I first saw that title 'Paradise now', and today was the day to watch it again.
This film, released in 2005 and directed by Hany Abu-Assad, is a portrait of the Palestinian conflict told from the hopeless perspective of two young friends who had decided to commit suicide; both wrapped in explosive belts. So far nothing new, but a disturbing feeling about this movie got inside of me when I watched it for the first time. The same sensation returned today. Again I felt an inexplicable empathy with Said, the green-eyed guy whose 'heaven' was to disappear from that dreadful and dusty town in the northern part of the West Bank.
To fight death with death is as contradictory as it is delicate to discuss. Certainly no religion, nation, ideology, or suffering on this earth is able to justify the violence that these young men were about to perform. Perhaps this film talks about that, but maybe at the same time it connects us with something as universal as hopelessness, as human as guilt, as familiar as desperation. After some years; three out of five stars again for this one.
