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| Fleeing for love is adequately shown as central to the story of Hany Abu-Assad's Omar here on its poster |
QUICK REVIEW:
Omar is an energetic young Palestinian, who is in love with his buddy's little sister. He carries out a kill mission on an Israeli soldier and gets captured. - The little group he works with have a rat. What now weighs heavier on Omar's mind? Love or the fight?
Omar is the 6th fiction feature by Palestinian writer-director Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now (2005)). It features handsome cinematography, by Ehab Assal (The Idol/Ya Tayr El Tayer (2015)), and is a technically impressive film, which brings the Palestinian side of the Israel-Palestine conflict into the light.
The problem of Omar is that the film presupposes that we accept Omar as its (also romantic) hero, even though he pretty early in the film becomes too dubious: The killing he carries out is too unjustifiable, and the macho culture that the film continues to show is in a similar way too reprehensible for the feat to succeed. - And if Omar's last act in the film (SPOILER his kill #2) is hailed as an act of heroism in Palestine and the Muslim world in general, the film is a downright catastrophe in my opinion.
In another note, some of the film, particularly in its beginning, is somewhat disorienting and confusing, at least for a non-Israeli/Palestinian.
Related reviews:
Other Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee 2014: The Hunt/Jagten (2012) - Vinterberg's strongest film since 1998 is a reversed Celebration
The Best Foreign Film Oscar winner of 2014: The Great Beauty/La Grande Bellezza (2013) or, Jep Gambardelli's Rome
In lieu of a trailer, which is not available on Youtube at the moment, here is a scene from the film with English subtitles
Cost: 2.1 mil. $
Box office: 0.8 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[Omar was written by Abu-Assad in four days and shot in the end of 2012 in Israel and Palestine on a budget made up from a 5 % contribution from the Dubai International Film Festival and the rest coming from Palestinians. The film was released for just 10 days in North America, where it grossed somewhere between 0.3 - 0.6 mil. $. - The numbers released for Omar are few and contradictory. The film received the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in Cannes and was Oscar-nominated as Best Foreign Film, losing to Paolo Sorrentino's masterpiece The Great Beauty/La Grande Bellezza (2013). Omar is certified fresh at 91 % with a 7.5 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Omar?
