Suicide bombers on the big screen
A Palestinian film about suicide attackers won a Golden Globe. But did the movie make them too human?

By MEGAN SCOTT, ASAP

Yossi Zur, whose son Asaf was killed by a suicide bomber, wants people to boycott "Paradise Now." (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Israel Project)
Suicide bombers: They don't come up much at awards shows, or really anywhere in the movie industry. But a film about them just won a Golden Globe, and not everyone is happy.

A father whose son was killed in a suicide bombing is launching a campaign against "Paradise Now," a Palestinian film about two young suicide bombers that won the award this week for best foreign film. Yossi Zur, whose 16-year-old son, Asaf, was killed in 2003, says the movie is dangerous because it humanizes suicide bombers.

The movie, which takes place in Nablus, in the West Bank, follows two car mechanics -- best friends since childhood -- for two days leading up to when they board a bus in Tel Aviv for the bombing.

"I am claiming this movie is very, very dangerous because it makes the suicide murderer a human being that one can identify with," says Zur, a project manager for a software company in Israel. "People will think this is a legitimate way if they have exhausted all means. It is absolutely not. It is a terrible phenomenon."

The director, Israeli-born Palestinian Hany Abu-Assad, says his intent was not to make a controversial film. He came up with the idea for the movie, which he wrote with Bero Beyer of the Netherlands, in 1999 -- before suicide bombings were common.

He says he didn't know much about suicide bombings, and he wanted to understand them.

"In order to stop it, you have to understand it," says Abu-Assad, also known for his international award winning films "Rana's Wedding" and "Ford Transit."

Does he understand it?

He says he does.

"Suicide bombing is a human reaction to a very inhumane situation," he says. "It doesn't mean I agree with it. I want to stop it for sure. I hope people have open discussion about the movie. That's it."

Scott Kecken, who teaches film and video at Villa Julie College in Maryland, says he does not believe the movie, which was released in October in Arabic with English subtitles, is advocating or justifying suicide bombing. While he hasn't seen the movie, he has read a lot about it.

"Just because you are looking at someone doing something horrible, doesn't mean it's not a legitimate topic to explore," says Kecken, who also produces and directs documentary films. "Keeping in mind that you are not making it an agenda or propaganda film. The same way you look at someone who committed a murder. You would say, 'What drove this person to commit a murder,' not 'how can we glorify what they did.'"

It is a tough balancing act, says Richard Chapman, who co-wrote the Golden Globe-nominated "Live From Baghdad," an HBO film about CNN's coverage of the early days of the first Persian Gulf War.

Chapman, who has not seen "Paradise Now," says when you are making a movie about killers or terrorists, or controversial historical figures like Adolf Hitler, you want to draw the audience in but you don't want to excuse the heinous choices those people made.

"I think you have to understand why those characters chose that in life, but not endorse that path, or glorify that path, or make it attractive," says Chapman, a lecturer in screenwriting at Washington University in St. Louis. "That's why these things are a risky enterprise."

Abu-Assad acknowledges that people are going to see the movie differently.

The movie hasn't yet been shown in Nablus -- the director says it will be very soon -- but residents there told an Associated Press reporter this week that clips they saw on satellite television portrayed the bombers as godless and less than heroic.

Other people will see the suicide bombers as heroes. Some will label them criminals. Others will call them cowards.

But at least people will be talking.

"Why didn't that person criticize the Sopranos?" Abu-Assad said of Zur. "In 'The Sopranos,' it's like fun, and it has more impact on society than my film."

Zur doesn't see it that way.

His son, Asaf, was killed on the afternoon of March 5, 2003, when he was on his way home from school. A 21-year-old suicide bomber boarded his bus and blew himself up. Seventeen people were killed -- nine were children.

He says he is speaking out not as a grieving father but as a human being. Even before Asaf was killed, he condemned suicide bombers.

"We were aware of the risk of suicide bombers, but to the tell you the truth, we never thought it would happen to us," says Zur, who has three other sons. "Now I can appreciate even more how awful it is."

Zur says he hopes his campaign harms the movie's chances of getting an Academy Award nomination and encourages people to boycott it.

"I think people in the civilized world should carry a message back to the makers of the film: You are making a movie that is dangerous, we are not going to watch it," says Zur. "We will not pay money to see the movie because what you are doing is wrong."

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Megan Scott is an asap reporter based in New York.