As I was looking up reviews on the movie Paradise Now, I found the controversy about this movie very interesting. While I was watching it, I never got the idea that this wasn't supposed to be a movie really about anything other than Palestine and what goes on there. However, after reading the controversy, many of the Israeli officials were angry that this was going to be called a Palestinian film. The American Academy Awards had quite the issue and there was much arguments from both Palestine and those in Israel. People in Palestine wanted this movie to show to others what goes on in their lives and I think that this is what the movie portrayed. After reading everything about this it just seems as though Israel and Palestine will find anything they possible can to argue about and that this should be something that is trivial compared to the things that are going on in their countries and the people that are being killed. Although I do think that it should be a Palestine film the Israeli writer Irit Linor wrote, "according to internationally accepted conventions, the nationality of a film is usually determined by the country that invested in it - and that while the film was categorized by the Academy as representing Palestine, it was produced with European funds, by an Israeli-Arab director." I suppose if you are going by those standards then this would almost have to be an Israeli film. Although I would think that this would make the film much less credible. This could simply be a way that an Israeli sees Palestine and not actually true facts or what really happens in Palestine. It is hard to tell exactly what this movie should be considered as, and after reading all of that it made me question if what happened in the movie was really something that I should take to heart as a part of the Palestinian culture, and to some extent I should, but how much is actually the truth and how much is the opinion of the Israeli director?
Paradise Now was an amazing movie and taught me so much about different parts of that culture. It is hard for me to put into perspective what the people go through in their daily lives, and what would actually bring them to watch to commit suicide while killing many others. I have always hate a weak stomach when it comes to war movies and that kind of thing, but the thought that there would be a movie about someone actually strapping a bomb to them is crazy to me. Of course, we have movies here about war and killing but for some reason when it comes to actually using yourself as the weapon is a crazy concept to me. Being in America we don't see movies made about things like that, I think because of the fear we have that something like this could happen over here. We don't want to bring those kinds of actions into any part of our culture, even in a fictional movie because that kind of thing does happen in other parts of the world. We only seem to portray people from Palestine and Israel in certain ways and then just try to ignore it as much as we can. This is why for me, watching a movie like this really sheds a new light on the things that happen in Palestine. I think that more Americans should watch films like this because it may help them understand what is really going on there and have a better grasp on the way these people lives and be thankful for the things that we don't have to deal with day to day.