[THE
ATTACK opens in Cleveland on
Friday July 12th exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]
Review
by Bob Ignizio
The
story of THE ATTACK
is told from the point of view of Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman),
a Palestinian doctor who lives and works in Israel and believes he
and his wife Siham (Reymond Amsalem) are more or less assimilated
into Israeli society. His world is torn apart after Siham
shockingly and unexpectedly commits a suicide bombing on the very
same night Doctor Jaafari is receiving an award from his peers,
leaving him stunned and in
disbelief. He barely has time to process what is happening before he
finds himself on the receiving end of “enhanced interrogation”
techniques by Israeli police.
Although
he is eventually let go, many of the same people who only days before
were congratulating Doctor Jaafari now treat him as guilty by
association. Nor for that matter is there much sympathy or
understanding from the Palestinian countrymen he had left behind,
even those in his and his wife's own family. Essentially a man
without a country, he becomes driven to learn why his wife would
commit such an act of violence and self destruction when outwardly
everything seemed to be fine.
Making
a film that involves the Israeli/Palenstinian conflict is pretty much
guaranteed to cause controversy no matter what position it takes. In
this case, Lebanese director/co-screenwriter Ziad Doueiri seems to be
taking a nuanced, shades of grey approach with enough in the way of
both negative and positive to go around for everyone to provide those
who wish to see it as favoring one side or the other the ammunition
to do so, provided they conveniently ignore the parts that don't fit
with their interpretation. Just because the film finds blame on both
sides of the wall doesn't mean it necessarily has any answers to
offer, though. But that's only appropriate for a film that is about
how there sometimes aren't any answers, either to big political
issues, or more personal ones. What THE ATTACK
seems to be saying is that, like Dr. Jaafari, the best we can do is
to stop pretending we already know the answers, and start looking for
them with truly open eyes. 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
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