Paradise Now (2005) on Netflix
PG-1320051h 31mCrimeDramaThrillerWar
Said and Khaled, lifelong friends in Nablus, work as auto mechanics until a resistance group recruits them for a suicide mission in Tel Aviv. Suha, back from abroad, challenges the action.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.4/1024,989 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
Said and Khaled have been friends since childhood and live in Nablus, in the West Bank, where both work as auto mechanics in a small garage and feel like prisoners. A Palestinian resistance group has accepted them for a suicide mission in Tel Aviv. Their handlers tell them the attack will happen the next day. The two make videos in which they praise God and their cause, and take leave of families who know nothing. The following day they shave their heads and beards and put on dark suits so they will pass as Israelis, with a wedding as their cover. Each man is fitted with an explosive belt that only the handlers can unlock. Suha, well educated and recently returned from years abroad, challenges the action and argues that they must be moral.
Cast
- Mohamed Bustamias Abu Salim
- Dirar Suleimanas Taxidriver Said
- Lutuf Nouasseras Car Owner (as Lotuf Neusser)
- Nour Abd El-Hadias Said's Sister
- Hamza Abu-Aiaashas Checkpoint Soldier
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Paradise Now (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While Paradise Now was being shot in Nablus, the film's location manager was kidnapped by a Palestinian faction and was not released until the intervention of the office of Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.
- Shooting Paradise Now was dangerous: a land mine exploded 300 metres from the set, and when Israeli helicopter gunships fired a missile at a car near the Nablus set one day, six crew members left the production for good.
- Paradise Now was the first Palestinian film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. An earlier Palestinian film, Divine Intervention, had failed to get into the competition, allegedly because entries must be put forward by a country's government and Palestine's sovereign status is disputed.
- Israeli officials including Consul General Ehud Danoch tried to get the Academy to guarantee Paradise Now would not be presented as representing the state of Palestine; the Academy then called its country "the Palestinian Authority", which director Hany Abu-Assad called a slap in the face for Palestinians.
- On 1 March 2006 a group representing Israeli victims of suicide bombings asked the Oscar organisers to disqualify Paradise Now, claiming that showing the film was immoral and encouraged the killing of civilians in terror acts.
- Paradise Now won Best Foreign Language Film at the 63rd Golden Globe Awards, the first time a Palestinian film had been nominated for the prize.
- Director Hany Abu-Assad and co-writer Bero Beyer began the script in 1999 and it took five years to get before cameras; their original story of a man searching for his suicide-bomber friend became the story of two friends, Said and Khaled.
