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Too many problems. Not worthy of an oscar.

posted 10 years ago by omfgitsrohit
3 replies | jump to latest

Walking out of Omar at CIFF 2013, I didn’t think for a second that the Palestinian film had the potential to be an Oscar contender. Overall, the film worked for me. But not very well, I must add. It was engaging, eventful, evenly paced, and cleverly plotted. However, it fails to entice, enthral or reward the viewer emotionally.

Omar is part-time baker, full-time revolutionary. He scales Israel-Palestine boundary walls every other day and almost gets shot. But Omar treats it like just another day at the office. He belongs to a rebellion that wants to take on armed forces and evict them out of the country despite being vastly outnumbered. They consider themselves freedom fighters, going as far as ambushing soldiers from a distance. But we never see what Omar gets from all of this. His ideological stance on the war or people around him remains unknown. All we know is that he belongs to a rebellion that provides him a sense of group identity. Apparently, that is all it takes for Omar to risk his life everyday and eventually go to war. Film-maker Hany Abu Assad doesn’t believe he needs to show us what motivates Omar to live this daredevil life. That Omar lives it stone-faced further confounds the viewer. He acts as if he has nothing to lose, when in fact he’s shown to share a strong bond with his ever-smiling naivete lover Nadia.

Fully elaborated on here- http://premiercritic.blogspot.in/2014/06/omar-2013.html

[–] nyshrink 10 years ago

I don't think films have to give history lessons. This is a drama. Anyone who wants to know more can read books by Edward Said, Rashid Khalidi, etc. Omar doesn't need an "ideological stance." He is fighting against a foreign military occupation. I realize many Americans don't know this, as our media is...well, you know.

[–] Joannrmjones 10 years ago

What you mistakenly see as a deficiency --- Omar not having an overblown "ideology" regarding war, oppression and occupation --- is the driving force of the human drama of OMAR.

The film is a classic tragedy. Omar's driving motivation is his love for Nadia. He scales walls to see her, saves money to marry her, and ultimately kills the man who helped ruin his chance for happiness with Nadia. Make no mistake, Omar is dead once he kills the agent on his case.

This movie doesn't pretend to be a political drama about Omar. Tarek and his cohorts are in the freedom fighters. Omar and the little guy want to marry Tarek's sister Nadia.

At the end of the film, Omar's demoralization in the face of betrayal, isolation, and heartbreak it shown by his difficulty scaling the wall. He has no life, so he bids Nadia farewell in a letter.

Instead of killing Desdemona, Othello kills Iago in this story.

(My only real problem with the movie was the rope over the wall. Maybe those exist in the same spots for years in the occupied territories. It seems to be a plot contrivance --- any random Israeli patrol would have removed the rope. Tarek even asks Omar how he made it to their side because even the story doesn't believe that there is a rope tied over the wall.)

[–] dark_frances 9 years ago

That's almost exactly what I thought about this movie, but the thought only occurred to me during the final act. Also, the actual thought in my head was "film noir!", which is classical tragedy by proxy.

And I almost didn't like the movie until the notion hit me. Now, in retrospect, it is a brilliant film.

there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above her shoulder