Undescribable Perfection

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It's about 5-10 Palestinian/families taking a tour of Israel. Apparently it is the only way that they can enter Israel proper. The whole of it is in Arabic or Hebrew and it is all sub-titled. It is broken into seven chapters, of which the titles are things like "I never would have believed I would walk next to a Jew."At one point they take a tour of an Israeli museum with of course an Israeli host, speaking Hebrew, and I loved how the documentarist re-visited the tour with the Palestinian Arabs reflections on what they had seen and been told.The most poignant part of the documentary to me was when this single Palestinian Arab whom had taken the tour, was able to see his Mother for the first time in years, and how they exchanged photographs by throwing them over the border between Israel and Lebanon.That's right, his family (Mother & siblings, Dad's dead by Israeli forces, I think) live in Lebanon, and since the West Bank where he lives does not border Lebanon, and because Lebanon will not let him into their country either, this bus tour of Israel was the only way for him to see his family. Anyway. For us Westerners, I more or less thought I knew the feelings that the Palestinians had, but it was very enlightening to me to see and hear the average Palestinian first hand. It hasn't changed any of my opinions of the mess in the Middle East, but it has given me a personal, new perspective.

I was quite moved by this stirring film about a group of Palestinians who travel into Israel, many for the first time since Israel formed. The most moving character is the old man who does something very touching in the last part of the film. There is also a middle-aged man who arrested during the first intifada who converses with an Israeli cab driver in Tel Aviv and surprisingly talks about his fondness for assisinated prime minsiter Rabin and asks the cabbie to take him to his memorial. During this scene, one sees a spray-painted word which says 'murderer' in Hebrew under the picture of Yassar Arafat from a picture of his signing of the peace accord in Maryland along with Rabin and President Clinton. Another touching moment comes when a woman in her thirties talks about life without her husband, who is serving a life sentence for killing an Israeli soldier. This film, directed by an Israeli director, puts a human face on the struggle. I went to the the Turkish side of Cyprus in 1991. I am half-Turkish yet I felt sad that such a beautiful island was so divided between the politics of ethnic hatred. This film reminded of the reasons for such hostilies as vividly as the fictional Bosnian film "No Man's Land," which last year's Oscar for best foreign-language film.