Omar (Hany Abu-Assad, 2013): Palestine

Reviewed by Robin Kadir at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2014.

Omar (Adam Bakri), a wiry, athletic man climbs up the Isolation Wall which is separating his village from his friends. The Israeli patrol shots at him and bloodies his hand, but he barely notices. All he can think about is his childhood friends Tarek (Eyad Hourani) and Amjad (Samer Bisharat) who’s waiting for him on the other side off the wall, along with Tarek’s beautiful sister Nadia (Leem Lubany). Omar has been treated badly by the Israeli police, he has been humiliated and roughed up by them. One night, Omar, Tarek and Amjad kills a soldier to get revenge. Omar gets caught after a delirious foot chase through the village and he get’s thrown into prison. He refuses to talk about what happened that night, even though they hang him naked by his wrists and tortures him. He faces 90 years in prison without appeal if he don’t speak out and betrays his friends. Omar makes a deal with prison warden Rami (Waleed F. Zuaiter) to get out of prison. He will be released for a month on the condition that he leads them to Tarek, who has gone underground. Omar also needs to see Nadia and plan their future together with the money he’s been saving.

At this time in the film, the story repeats itself. Omar meets up with Tarek and Amjad and they plan another ambush on the Israelis. Once again everyone except Omar gets away with it and Omar gets thrown right back into prison. Rami is willing to give Omar a second chance and let’s him out for the second time to give it a new try. But everything doesn’t go his way, his relationship with Nadia takes an ugly turn and love and politics become dangerously close.

I think that some people might find some scenes too brutal and they might find the ending disturbing. But if you look through that, you will see it as another horrible outcome of events in the Middle East. You can tell that the director Hany Abu-Assad really put his heart into this film, the feelings are real and the scenes really touches you. I enjoyed watching this film from the beginning to the end, there were always something happening and I wanted to know what was going to happen to Omar. I don’t want to reveal too much about the end because I think you should see it for yourself, all I can say is that it was unexpected and brilliant. This is the type of film that everyone should see to appreciate their own life more.