If anything, The Attack, Ziad Doueiri's even-handed film of Yasmina Khadra's novel, tends toward the Palestinian side. An early report has an Israeli policeman refusing to let an Arab enter a mosque unless he smokes a cigarette first. As it is Ramadan the Arab refuses, there is a scuffle, the cop is stabbed, the Palestinian arrested. However necessary the defensive posture, an exchange at a checkpoint shows Israeli abruptness almost trigger a fatal melee. The Arab surgeon hero, Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman), is seen to grow as he shifts from being the Israelis' house Arab to refusing to help the Israelis commit more suppression in the name of justice and peace. His suicide bomber wife Siham (Reymond Amsalem) strikes a powerful chord when she writes that she can't bear bringing a child to live without a homeland. The Jews know about that, but that's not grounds for their national suicide.
When the surgeon receives his Israeli medical award, the first Arab to receive it in its 41 year history, he recalls experiencing Jewish hostility. He considers that erased by the support he received in his medical education and career, culminating in this award. But we see he is still treated with hostility. A Jewish medical colleague snipes at the surgeon's success as a doctor and in his investments. A Jewish bombing victim refuses to be touched by the Christian Arab doctor. The policeman investigating the suicide bombing abuses his power in trying to wring a confession out of the innocent doctor.
In his acceptance speech the doctor makes perhaps the film's central point: we have to reexamine our certitudes. Having suffered prejudice, he has come to respect and to befriend his Jewish colleagues and patients. But as he tracks down the forces behind his wife's astonishing double life he rediscovers the Palestinian side of the issue. As his wife's cousin contends, the Palestinians want to live in dignity.
Here the film perhaps stops too soon. The Palestinians could have lived in dignity in their own state since 1948. Instead they have refused the two-state solution in the hopes of eradicating Israel instead. A dignity that requires the elimination of another people is something quite other than dignity.
Finally, examining our certitudes cuts two ways. As the murders and vengeance continue the peacemakers may lose their zeal. When the doctor reveals his new perspective he loses the Jewish woman colleague who had been such a supportive friend all along. The longer this war continues the more set the old certitudes will become and the more negative any change. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com.
When the surgeon receives his Israeli medical award, the first Arab to receive it in its 41 year history, he recalls experiencing Jewish hostility. He considers that erased by the support he received in his medical education and career, culminating in this award. But we see he is still treated with hostility. A Jewish medical colleague snipes at the surgeon's success as a doctor and in his investments. A Jewish bombing victim refuses to be touched by the Christian Arab doctor. The policeman investigating the suicide bombing abuses his power in trying to wring a confession out of the innocent doctor.
In his acceptance speech the doctor makes perhaps the film's central point: we have to reexamine our certitudes. Having suffered prejudice, he has come to respect and to befriend his Jewish colleagues and patients. But as he tracks down the forces behind his wife's astonishing double life he rediscovers the Palestinian side of the issue. As his wife's cousin contends, the Palestinians want to live in dignity.
Here the film perhaps stops too soon. The Palestinians could have lived in dignity in their own state since 1948. Instead they have refused the two-state solution in the hopes of eradicating Israel instead. A dignity that requires the elimination of another people is something quite other than dignity.
Finally, examining our certitudes cuts two ways. As the murders and vengeance continue the peacemakers may lose their zeal. When the doctor reveals his new perspective he loses the Jewish woman colleague who had been such a supportive friend all along. The longer this war continues the more set the old certitudes will become and the more negative any change. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com.