Far from paradise

Paradise Now is a film about Palestinian suicide bombers. A couple of fairly ordinary not-very-religious guys, sitting about and smoking in Nablus are 'selected' to be suicide bombers.

Leaving aside the acting (which others described as 'excellent', but I thought was particularly unpalestinian - whatever that means. Of course, I don't really know many Palestinians either), this film is an excellent primer of the situation in the West Bank.

Much of the filming was done on location. It looks like Palestine, checkpoints look like checkpoints and so on. As it should. But the depression of the ordinary Palestinian is also very evident. These guys are not monsters, they are tired, frustrated, bored young men.