Review // Omar

Hany Abu-Assad returns to the screen this weekend with Omar, the Oscar nominated thriller set in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli director last earned an Oscar nomination for 2005’s Paradise Now, a film which saw a pair of childhood friends recruited for a suicide bombing mission in Tel Aviv. His newest sets its characters in similarly impossible circumstances. Both a tense thriller and a tender love story, Omar is an exciting watch, but an ultimately grim fatalistic exercise.

Adam Bakri stars as Omar, an affable young Palestinian man who leads a double life. At home he is a baker, working to save up the money to marry his sweetheart Nadia (Leem Lubany) and get out of the West Bank. By night he becomes a resistance fighter, plotting against the Israeli’s with his childhood friends Tarek (Iyad Hoorani) and Amjad (Samer Bisharat). When the trio kill an Israeli soldier, Omar is hunted down and interrogated by the intense security agent Rami (Waleed Zuaiter), who pressures him to give up his friends or spend the rest of his life in jail.

Bakri carries the film, and does a tremendous job as the beleaguered Omar. As he clambers through the maze-like city – a one-man resistance between warring sides – the film bursts with energy. Despite being cast on the wrong side of the law, he is exceedingly likeable, even able to charm the gruff and seasoned Rami into giving him a second chance. His relationship with Nadia is playful and sweet, and the bond between him and Tarek is one of brothers.

Yet the power of paranoia and doubt begins to take its toll. Omar returns to questions about his easy escape, and suspicions about his allegiances. Forced to enter in to another plan by Tarek – under the condition that he give his consent for Omar to marry Nadia – the story begins to feel like an inevitable plod towards a violent end. Despite the injection of gender politics and cultural expectations into the final act, the film struggles to stand unique against a long tradition of romantic tragedy. The end therefore does not shock or appal us, but rather confirms our expectations of the genre.

Omar is the type of film that I feel like I should have enjoyed more. The quickly plotted story is expertly woven, bringing both sides closer and closer together while paranoia eats away at the bonds of friendship and love. It captures the helpless feeling so many young people in hostile parts of the world must endure on a daily basis. Abu-Assad avoids making a wide political point, but instead leans on old standby themes of the fragility of life and the devastating consequences of a single wrong action. They have the ring of truth, but it’s a familiar tone.

Anyone who enjoys a dark, thrilling drama will be pleased with this effort. Omar competes for the Oscar this weekend in the Best Foreign Language Film category, and I’ll be wishing it luck. But my own preference will have to go to The Great Beauty. Another dark take on the futility of life, it allows us to believe that we can rise above it.

Reviewed by Evan Arppe.

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