Paradise Now

How can the occupier be the victim?
asks Said, in the closing moments of Paradise Now.

Said and Khaled are walking time bombs. With explosives strapped to their bodies, the two young Palestinians plan to slip into Israel, to execute a suicide mission in Tel Aviv. But as plans go haywire, the two are separated due to circumstances. They both end up running into Suha, daughter of a martyr and human rights activist, at different times and known to both of them. Suha upon knowing their intention, tries valiantly to convince them.

Two conversations from Paradise Now, that make amply clear that there are no easy answers. Or maybe, no answers.

Said tells Suha about how they burnt a cinema hall as teenagers during a demonstration.

Suha asks, Why the cinema?
Said replies, Why us?

While they’re trying to find Khaled, Suha scolds Khaled -
There’s no paradise. Its all in your head.

Only for Khaled to reply -
Its better having a paradise in your head than living in hell.

Towards the end, Khaled persuades Said to abandon the mission as its stupidity and would end up achieving nothing. Said agrees, only to betray Khaled at the pivotal moment, and choosing to go it alone. Khaled and Said, in a metaphorical sense, stand as the two choices available to Palestinians living today.

Paradise Now tries to tell us that there’s really not much of a choice. You can choose to accept humiliation and poverty, thus inviting more oppression. Or use your body as a weapon and blow up people, and allow an excuse for oppression.
In terms of choice, one is no better over the other. Either way, you’re fucked up. Its an endless, vindictive cycle which is beyond control.

Paradise Now is a sensational film – at once touching, haunting and terrifying.