Omar (Hany Abu-Assad, 2013)

Reviewed by Dennis Hansson. Viewed at Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Omar is a Palestinian freedom fighter who participates in the killing of an Israeli soldier together with his two friends Amjad and Tarek, which forces him into a series of  life changing events as he tries to avoid working as an informant for the Israeli army and turn on his palestinian brothers.Omar explore several themes as we follow Omar’s life as a freedom fighter, but the two most essential ones are love and politics. Omar is in love with Nadja, sister to Tarek, whom happens to be one of his oldest friends since childhood, but also his boss within the organization that Omar is being forced to turn bad against to avoid serving 90 years in prison.

Some of the things that makes Omar such a great film is its mix of a good story, a well-crafted script with lots of unpredictable twists that keeps you on the edge, great acting and amazing cinematography. Some action scenes where Omar is being chased through buildings and up in stairs etc, are just amazing. The movement with the camera is so smooth and the action is so fast with very narrow passages that it actually feels that you are taking part of the chase. Another thing that makes Omar a great film, is the fact that the challenges Omar faces, is the reality of many young Palestinian men, trying to stand up for themselves against the Israeli government, which adds a great amount of value in my opinion. It is also very easy to relate to the movie for those who doesn’t faces these challenges, thanks to the amazing love story that the film also includes. A four person drama, were Omar and Amjad both are in love with Tarek’s sister Nadja, which obviously complicates the whole situation even more and puts them in a extremely complex situation.

I really, really enjoyed this movie and I rank it as number one through the entire festival. It was a true experience, and it was fun to see something from outside of Hollywood that is as good, if not better, then most of the films being produced in Hollywood today. I give Omar 8 out of 10 and if you ever get the chance to see the film if you haven’t done it, do it. It’s worth every minute of your time.