The film 'Omar' doesn't pretend to be balanced. It's a Palestine-made, Palestine-financed film, showing the Palestine view on the conflict. That view is clear: the Israelis are cruelly and ruthlessly oppressing a brave people, fighting for freedom and independence.
Personally, I think this way of looking at things is rather accurate. But the flip side is that this doesn't make the film more interesting. It doesn't provide any new insight on the conflict. It confirms what we know about it, or think to know. In that respect, another recent film about the same subject, 'The Attack', is much more subtle because it shows the conflict from an unexpected, original viewpoint.
But 'Omar' is by no means an uninteresting film. It's a very exciting thriller about how paranoid you can get by being a forced undercover informant. After having participated in the killing of an Israeli soldier, Omar gets arrested. In prison, he faces a dilemma. Spending the rest of his life in prison, or becoming an informant and thus being able to marry his cute girlfriend. He chooses the latter, but then refuses to inform the Israelis about an ambush that is being set up by his Palestine friends. He becomes entangled in a web of lies, betrayal and shifting allegiances. He cannot trust anyone, not even his girlfriend.
The story is well filmed and acted, but has a few weaknesses. Sometimes I had trouble understanding what exactly was going on. Also unclear was the geographical situation. We see Omar climbing the famous wall between Israel en Palestine, but to me it was not clear which part of the story is set in Palestine and which part is in Israel. The wall climbing seems to be a mere gimmick, it doesn't have any function or meaning in the story. Nevertheless, near the end there are some very surprising plot twists. At one point, you can almost feel Omar's desperation when he realizes that some of the most important choices he made in his life were based on lies and treason. The very last scene is also unexpected and very strong.
As a thriller set against the background of the Palestine-Israel conflict, this film works very well. But don't expect to learn something about the conflict you didn't already know.
One last remark: I couldn't help but notice how similar the theme of this film is to 'Shadow Dancer', a recent Irish film about a female IRA-fighter being forced by British intelligence to become an undercover informant. In this case, it was the love for her young child that made her do it.
Personally, I think this way of looking at things is rather accurate. But the flip side is that this doesn't make the film more interesting. It doesn't provide any new insight on the conflict. It confirms what we know about it, or think to know. In that respect, another recent film about the same subject, 'The Attack', is much more subtle because it shows the conflict from an unexpected, original viewpoint.
But 'Omar' is by no means an uninteresting film. It's a very exciting thriller about how paranoid you can get by being a forced undercover informant. After having participated in the killing of an Israeli soldier, Omar gets arrested. In prison, he faces a dilemma. Spending the rest of his life in prison, or becoming an informant and thus being able to marry his cute girlfriend. He chooses the latter, but then refuses to inform the Israelis about an ambush that is being set up by his Palestine friends. He becomes entangled in a web of lies, betrayal and shifting allegiances. He cannot trust anyone, not even his girlfriend.
The story is well filmed and acted, but has a few weaknesses. Sometimes I had trouble understanding what exactly was going on. Also unclear was the geographical situation. We see Omar climbing the famous wall between Israel en Palestine, but to me it was not clear which part of the story is set in Palestine and which part is in Israel. The wall climbing seems to be a mere gimmick, it doesn't have any function or meaning in the story. Nevertheless, near the end there are some very surprising plot twists. At one point, you can almost feel Omar's desperation when he realizes that some of the most important choices he made in his life were based on lies and treason. The very last scene is also unexpected and very strong.
As a thriller set against the background of the Palestine-Israel conflict, this film works very well. But don't expect to learn something about the conflict you didn't already know.
One last remark: I couldn't help but notice how similar the theme of this film is to 'Shadow Dancer', a recent Irish film about a female IRA-fighter being forced by British intelligence to become an undercover informant. In this case, it was the love for her young child that made her do it.