An Exercise In Nonsense

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This is this generation's "Jud Süß", hammered together for this side of History. For those of you who understand what that is, you probably feel disgusted at why I gave this thing 1 star. It deserves none but alas, that's the way the scale works around here. I have watched and quite enjoyed "the diving bell and the Butterfly" and found it deep, meaningful, sobering and a well put together effort from a director I had never heard about. It was one of those films that was recommended to me because it had "that guy from 'Munich'"... or so I was told. But I digress.This is the kind of thing that can really ruin a movie experience to me. A film that tries so hard to send out a message of a real World conflict, described with such inanity, ineptitude and so completely divorced from the reality it purports to represent... reminds me of "Kingdom of Heaven".If you are looking for an honest look at the Middle Eastern conflict, please look elsewhere. This film will do you a disservice. And the irony that it came out on the very same day that that the Fogel family "made" (local) headlines just adds insult to injury! Pun intended!

First of all, I'd just like to mention that I am a Secular American Jew who may make Aliyah in the future.Anyway, I actually just registered for IMDb being that I thought this movie was really worth reviewing here and that I think all my friends should see it, anyway, my review.If you go into watching Miral expecting to see a plot with clear structure, intro to climax and conclusion, your expectations will not be met. However, if you go into Miral in order to learn more about the Arab-Israeli conflict and follow it from an honest, Palestinian perspective, you'll love this movie to death.Although most people say that this movie is following the lives of two different Palestinian women, you're really only following one--Miral, the other woman doesn't really develop as a character throughout the film. Miral during the film goes through metamorphosis of perspective of sorts as she goes from being a revolutionary against the Israelis to realizing the goodness on both sides and believing in the possibility for peace.But besides that, the events going around Miral paint a perfect picture of the conflict, as it is, nothing hidden. For example, in the film, you'll see a "Peace Protest" that turned violent that Miral participated in, as well mention of Jewish Settlements within the region of Judea and Samaria/the West Bank. You will also see tremendous hate on both sides, such as a Palestinian who in her blind hate became a suicide bomber killing innocent people she didn't know in a movie theater, and an Israeli father who "thinks all Palestinians are terrorists".All in all, this is an absolutely fantastic film and I highly recommend it, but cautiously. As this film does not show much, if any of a separate Israeli perspective (Like most of the media involving the Israeli-Arab conflict, this film only shows one side, Arab or Israeli, and not the other), it is therefore somewhat biased in presentation by definition. The viewer should be careful and take heed of all events in the film as they are, simply, and through Miral's perspective while viewing for maximum enjoyment and understanding of the events depicted.

On a recent visit to New York about two weeks ago, I happened upon the opportunity to watch the movie "Miral", followed by a Q&A session with director Julian Schnabel ("Diving Bell and the Butterfly", one of my top 10 movies of the last decade), and with the writer of the screenplay and the memoir upon which the movie was based, Israeli Palestinian Rula Jebreal. Jebreal's book is also named "Miral"; the movie and the book are the story of her youthful experiences growing up a Palestinian in Jerusalem, as well as stories about her mother and about a remarkable woman--named Hind Hussein--who started an orphanage and school there in the aftermath of the chaos around the creation of the Israeli state in 1947. Rula Jebreal was "Miral", a character named after a flower that grows by the side of the road in that region, and she grew up in the orphanage, attending the school, after the suicide of her mother (I believe it was the early '70's). Filmed in a variety of great locations in Israel and the West Bank, the movie shows the misery and strife of military occupation from the point of view of Palestinians. Rula/Miral has the status of being an Israeli citizen, as her ancestors never left, and finds her identity as a Palestinian as a teenager. Miss Hind, the towering figure of the orphanage/school for some 40 years from the time she founded it, provides hope for the young girls there and does her best to protect them from the dangers of the intifada (uprising). At the story's end, she arranges for Miral to go to Italy to attend university, then dies, a local hero.Rula's experiences include an infatuation with a young intifada leader who first supports the Al Fatah (PLO) position, then runs afoul of them and is killed as an accused traitor; she is taken by the Israeli authorities, interrogated, then blindfolded, bound, and beaten; her Israeli citizenship saved her from more prolonged imprisonment. Still, her experiences are not nearly as harsh as those the film recounts of her mother, who was abused and degraded, falsely imprisoned by the Israelis, and afterwards could not live with herself. Miral's "father" (the parentage was shown not to be biological) is one of the few positive male characters, a complicated character who was a devout Muslim, loyal to Miral's mother despite her infidelity, and a loving father, yet one who gives up custody of his daughter to the orphanage. Beyond the range of the movie's story, Rula Jebreal became a journalist in Italy (as she said, "the first 'black' TV presenter there"). She spoke passionately at the Q&A session of her desire to raise awareness in the world of the plight of the Palestinians, though affirming her love of the area and acknowledging that she loves Israel as well. One thing she does not accept, and of which her life is testimony, is the Zionist notion that Israel is a Jewish state; though she came to have Jewish friends and appreciate their culture (some of which is shown in the movie), she wants a unitary state for all who live there. The film is deeply affecting, though perhaps not as much as Schnabel's "Diving Bell". Frieda Pinto, the (South Asian) female lead of the smash hit 2008 movie "Slumdog Millionaire", is a bit of a controversial choice for the difficult role of Miral, but I will say that she brings to it something like the beauty which I witnessed that evening from Rula herself. Her father was played by an actor, Alexander Siddig, who seemed very familiar but I could not place: turns out he was a regular, Dr. Bashir, on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (not a great recommendation, I know, but his performance here was sympathetic and dignified). The other two key roles, both very challenging to portray, were those of Hind Hussein and of Miral's mother Nadia, played by Palestinian actresses, Hiam Abbass and Yasmine El Masri, respectively. Willem Dafoe and Vanessa Redgrave both lent their presence to the movie, though their roles are relatively small and peripheral to the story. Schnabel spoke of the difficulty in getting official permissions to film in many locations, but also of the cooperation and passionate support for his effort that he sometimes found, and of the beauty of the region. He is known primarily as a painter, and is the son of prominent Jewish leaders, but has taken a courageous, independent political stance with this effort. He has run into some resistance from the Hollywood community, not too surprising considering the subject matter; he didn't need their help to make the film, but he will need it (and will not get it) to get broad enough distribution for him and Rula to accomplish their aim of raising political awareness. They may have to settle for the satisfaction of telling a compelling story beautifully, as both their political aims and commercial success will no doubt lie beyond their capability.

With a few caveats "Miral" is a rather good movie. It shows things from the Palestinian perspective and does leave out an important point or two ... but again in general it's pretty good cinematic experience.The development of a young lady named Miral is the main subject here. The film is based on an autobiographical novel by Rula Jebreal. Miral is Palestinian and she attends a school that some might consider a privileged place for a Palestinian. She is very lucky to get the type of education offered at the school. The school is a boarding school and is also an orphanage. It is run by a wonderful lady.The author, Rula Jebreal, is a journalist. She attended university in Italy and was a journalist there for over decade. After that she worked for a Cairo TV station.There is quite a bit of "setup" in the film before the main character Miral appears. You just have to wade through it because it's quite necessary to build the foundation before this particular house can be built.Even though there are multiple issues of importance to women raised by the film I suspect that creative men will be interested in most all of the film. I'm a guy and I liked it.The main issue in the film is how Miral's attitude towards and approach to the Israeli/Palestinian struggle will develop. It's a complex subject and the film likewise is complex. Overall the film acquits itself quite well is this area.OK. Let's get to the controversial stuff. The movie portrays the situation from the Palestinian perspective. Once or twice it leaves out an important point and that omission gives an "advantage" of the Palestinian side of the "argument." However in another case it really should provide a tiny bit more historical info to make the portrayal of the circumstances surrounding the founding of the school/orphanage more credible. Let's tackle that bit first.The school/orphanage is founded because a wonderful lady finds a group of orphans in the street who say their parents were all killed without reason. The scene just didn't seem believable to me ... until I looked up the Deir Yassin massacre. It really happened and those kids are (part of) the subject matter of this film. Again, it was called the Deir Yassin massacre. Look that one up (try haaretz.com). The film should have mentioned that incident by name in a later scene for increased credibility.OK. Now the flip side of the coin. The school/orphanage grows greatly because of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War that started the day after Israel declared its independence and sovereignty. Nowhere is it mentioned in the film that in that war the Arab nations were the first to move across national boundaries ("they started it"). More balance is needed on this point.Another point omitted in the film occurs in an important scene where the Israeli army is tearing down a Palestinian house. I could be wrong about this, but they typically do this when someone has committed a really bad terrorist act. That persons house (or their parents house) is then destroyed. When the house is torn down in the movie no context/reason is given whatsoever. For a film that is trying to balance things this a noticeable omission.One high circulation newspaper said that the film was a "slanderous and shameful piece of propaganda." That's just totally wrong. To me it is sensitive and complex. Another newspaper review said the movie had a "disdain for details." On the contrary, it gets the details right with the caveats noted above. The Guardian said "Freida Pinto looks uneasy and miscast as Miral herself." Ms. Pinto's acting is quite good. The only problem there is that her skin tone is a 1/2 shade to dark. I REALLY doubt that most folks with white skin will notice that "problem." The Village Voice said it was "at-odds-with-itself" and was a "partisan work." The only sense that the film is "at-odds-with-itself" is that the title character's response to the Israeli/Palestinian struggle changes over time. The work is told from the Palestinian point of view ... that makes it partisan? Give me a break! What crap! On the other hand the use of plaintive violin music is a bit overdone in the film.Let's get real here. It distinctly appears that the reason that people might typically review this film poorly is that they don't like that a story is being told from the Palestinian point of view.I understand that this is an incredibly tough problem, but to quote Rodney King "Can't we all get along?" Unfortunately the situation seems quite insoluble.