Not just Suha's drive - when he was driving throughout the area looking for Said.
Now I know that Nablus is an underdeveloped and bombed out shell, but during the sequence when Khaled is looking for Said, he is, for perhaps the first time in his life, looking at the environment he lives in.
Not the poverty and rubble, but the hum of life - the hustle and bustle of people flowing in and out of stores and up and down the market streets. All the people in cars driving forward, all the vendours with their colourful products and foods lit by sunlight on display, all the women with their distinct wraps and scarves, all the children running down the sidewalks, the thick blinding plumes of brown dust from the road, the sunlight dappling everything.
Just as Said, early in the film, finds solace in breathing in the nighttime panorama of Nablus, Khaled soaks in the world he was raised in, sees it alive.
That was the beginning of his transformation.
His exchange with Suha continued the transformation, and his ironic relief at finding Said still alive, and his ironic desire to keep Said alive, cements his transformation.
reply
share
rlippman-2
15 years ago
Excellent insight, thanks! I too kept wondering about Said's nihilism. As bad as things were portrayed, there seemed reason for hope and life too. The lovely woman who seemed so interested in him and so full of spirit. The job he had, and the lovely caring family. So much to live for, yet he was blinded by religion and by the shame that was imposed upon his family for his father's so-called weakness.
reply
share
Kawada_Kira
13 years ago
TemporaryOne-1, that's an excellent post. Great way of describing it.
Voting Democrat over Republican is like asking your rapist to use a condom.
reply
share