Paradise Now (Al-Jenna-An)

Introduced by the director, this controversial drama tracks the last day of two childhood friends recruited for suicide bombings in Tel Aviv. While offering personal insight into the motivations behind such a heinous crime, the film’s producers claim a neutral position, siding neither with the Israelis nor the Palestinians. “We tried simply to make a story that deflates the myth of both extremes and brings it down to a human factor,” says coproducer Bero Beyer. Developed at the Sundance Screenwriting Lab, Paradise Now won the 2005 Berlin Film Festival Blue Angel Award for best European film. 2005, France/Germany/Netherlands/Israel, color, 35mm, in Arabic with English subtitles, 91 minutes. A Warner Independent Pictures Release.