Omar

Plot synopsis:
Omar (Adam Bakri) is a Palestinian baker who frequently climbs the West Bank barrier to visit his lover Nadia (Leem Lubany), a high-school girl whom he intends to marry. After being beaten and humiliated by a group of Israeli soldiers, Omar and his childhood friends Tarek (Eyad Hourani) and Amjad (Samer Bisharat) stage an attack on an Israeli checkpoint. During the attack, Amjad shoots and kills an Israeli soldier. Later, Omar and his friends are subsequently pursued by the Israeli authorities. During the pursuit, Omar is captured and imprisoned by the Israeli authorities. Facing a lengthy prison term, Omar is forcibly coerced by an Israeli agent named Rami (Waleed Zuaiter) into working as a double agent for the Israeli authorities. Agent Rami secures Omar's release in exchange for the latter bringing Tarek to the authorities.
Due to his early release, Omar is stigmatized by many in his community as a suspected collaborator. Omar's predicament is further complicated by the fact that his lover Nadia is Tarek's sister. Due to Omar's delays in keeping his side of the bargain, he is arrested again by the Israeli authorities. During his imprisonment, he makes a second deal with Agent Rami in order to find out who is betraying the Palestinian militants. Omar later learns that his friend Amjad is the mole. When confronted, Amjad confesses that Nadia is pregnant with his child and that the Israelis had used that to blackmail him into working for them. Omar forces Amjad to confess to Tarek. During an ensuing struggle between the three men, Tarek is killed when his gun accidentally goes off. With the help of Agent Rami, Omar and Amjad managed to hide their involvement in Tarek's death.
Two years later, Omar visits Nadia and finds he was totally betrayed by Amjad who was not having an affair with Nadia and is now married to her with two children. She still loves him and finds Amjad did not deliver letters she wrote to him before marriage.Then he is revisited by Agent Rami who attempts to coerce him into killing another ringleader. By this stage, Nadia has abandoned her studies and become a homestay mother to two young children. During a meeting with Agent Rami, Omar tricks the former into giving him a gun under the pretext of killing Amjad. Omar instead uses the gun to kill Agent Rami as an easy way out, but the outcome of Amjad is left unclear.

Tags: revenge, violence, romantic

Review:
The 3 friends (Omar, Tarek & Amjad) plus the sister Nadia are constantly kept off balance by the political tensions that come from living in Palestine.
This Oscar-nominated Palestinian film may not be as "fair and balanced" in its depiction of the seemingly endless and intractable Mid East conflict as some might wish it to be, but, like all good social dramas, the movie is far more concerned with exploring the human condition than with scoring political points.
Omar (Adam Bakri) is a young Palestinian baker who, at great risk to himself, regularly scales the massive wall that runs through occupied Palestine to hang out with his friends, Tarek (Iyad Hoorani) and Amjad (Samer Bisharat), and to carry on a secret romance with his girlfriend, Nadia (Leem Lubany), who also happens to be Tarek's sister.
Against this backdrop of simmering social and ethnic unrest, the bonds of friendship are tested in ways that will surprise and move you.Though the geographic, sectarian and boundary issues could be a bit more clearly defined for audiences less familiar with the area, the screenplay by Hany Abu-Assad finds its truth in its portrayal of what day-to-day life is like for the ordinary people who call that part of the world home.
For underneath all the outward bravado and righteous bluster, they are still just "boys" after all, with all the interests and concerns that all young men have who are embarking on this journey we call life - a journey made all the more arduous and challenging by the world in which they live.Assad's direction is taut when it needs to be (particularly in the striking foot chases through the narrow streets and alleyways of the prison-like city) and observant and patient when that is what is called for.All the actors are excellent, but special mention must be made of young Bakri, who, as the title character, runs the emotional gamut from explosive to sheepish without missing a beat, his sly, toothy grin standing in direct counterpoint to his steely gaze and serious mien.
If the saga of Omar were a wine, it would have to be described as "Shakespearian, with notes of Dante, Orwell, Golding, and Sartre." Omar is a basically decent, seemingly uncomplicated young bakery worker who is inexorably drawn into the violent political warfare of the West Bank through his love for a girl, his increasingly radicalized circle of friends from childhood, and Israeli injustice.
Right up to its unexpected, yet expectable, ending Omar is more victim than protagonist.Clearly anti-Israeli in tone, the film explores the many reasons why Palestinians maintain an abiding antagonism toward Israel and Israelis.
As the movie opens, we see Omar climbing over the separation wall (diving Israel from the West bank) to see the girl of his dreams, Nadja.
I watched Omar (2013, directed by Hany Abu-Assad) last night and thought how well Abu-Assad translated a twisting, conniving, chaotic, and disruptive sociopolitical situation to the mis-en-scene and plot points of his film.
Omar is the name of the film and is also the name of our main protagonist (Adam Bakri) one of the three friends whose sensitivity, loyalty, passion for life, and love of the cause are unflinching.
Omar tells a story of one man's life in the grande scheme of things and in the on-going battle between Jews and Arabs for a Holy Land; a land who's soil is drenched with the bloody memories of the lives once lived.Part high-tension chase film, part intricate prison/interrogation drama, Omar could easily be confused with a political-thriller that would and could be directed by Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips); thanks to the film's effortless ability to share many of the same idealistic political views of its people, its military, its innocent and its guilty.
After facing countless attacks within the prison, being accused of treason and as collaborating with Jews, Omar's greatest challenge is to convince his peers, fellow patriots, the love of his life Nadia (Leem Lubany), as well as himself of the choices and actions he must make to clear his name and garner the trust that seems far from reach.As the plot of the film progresses, Omar, a once simple baker working outside the West Bank, daydreaming of a Honeymoon with his girlfriend and hopeful wife Nadia, becomes a conspirator of each person around him and their elaborate plans against the opposition.
The film quickly progresses to a spellbinding and exhausting flee of terror from authorities and so many questionable ideals which each side exhibits.Filmmaker Abu-Assad, who was born in Nazareth, and is no stranger to the dangers of life in the West Bank, uses Omar and his fine skills as a director to catch up and keep pace with the athletic, constantly in-pursuit protagonist.
Thankfully, Abu-Assad handles the film gracefully and unbiased, presenting the very real terrors endured by either side.Omar then becomes a film that allows anyone, including audiences, to "believe the unbelievable", even if the final ending feels forced, and completely unexpected.
Courageous director Hany Abu-Assad amazes us with yet another intriguing story set against the backdrop of Israeli-Palestinian conflict (previous ones: 'Rana's Wedding', 'Paradise Now').
With the impressive claustrophobic compositions and sets, outside and inside, the director has even more skillfully shown through his star-crossed lovers that this war in not over for soldiers or lovers anytime soon:"I believe that in the long run, separation between Israel and the Palestinians is the best solution for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Yitzhak Rabin.
This movie is filled with drama and action , and tragic romantic storyit also exposes the reality of situation in Palestine under Israeli Apartheid and Occupation it also shows the daily life pf Palestinians under occupation farther more , the director Hani Abu Assad ,who made "Paradise Now" movie , which nominated Academy Award in 2006 , but failed to win due to Israeli pressure on Academyin "Omar" we can see love beyond the Apartheid WALL , we can see sacrifices for love , facing shooting by Israeli Snipers from the watching towers , while Omar passing above the Wall, and then arresting and abused by Israeli occupation forces to be a collaborator (traitor to Palestine ) , using his love as a pressure.
OMAR is a complex film balancing a love-story involving the eponymous central character (Adam Bakri), his girlfriend Nadia (Leem Lubany), and his close friends Tarek (Ilyad Hoorani) and Amjad (Samer Basharat).
However director Hany Abu-Assad overlays this story with another plot, in which Omar is tricked by Israeli agent Rami (Maleed Zuaiter) into informing on his Palestianian cohorts.
The film's love-story elements have a distinct ROMEO AND JULIET feel about them, especially when Omar has to keep crossing into forbidden territory to see Nadia, running the perpetual risk of capture by Israeli soldiers.
The movie tells a story about four young Palestinians, three guys who are friends and involved in the line of resistance, and a girl who is a sister of one of them and the other two love her....
its normal that many reviews are simply biased regarding the Palestinian - Israeli conflict, but we are not in the 1960's anymore, the whole world know what is it like in Palestine, its not that easy to manipulate the Israeli secret service, but there are many cases of Palestinian spies who work with the Israelis after being blackmailed and the movie's main message is those people, who get involved in working with the Israelis for many reasons such as threatening their families lives or filming them having sex with Israeli females and using that in order to get them work with them....
so I'd say that giving the fact we are in 2014 I believe everyone in the world should know what is happening in reality.talking about the movie, it is not a 5 star quality, but it is worth watching specially for those who have no idea what is going on in Palestine..
in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as backdrop.American film enthusiasts may remember Abu-Assad's 2006 Golden Globe-winning Paradise Now about two Palestinians preparing a suicide attack in Israel.Less well, perhaps, anchored in our memory is 2002 Rana's Wedding, a tale of the onerous burdens of living under Israeli occupation, which sours the joy even of a marriage.Born in Nazareth, Abu-Assad is an Israeli Palestinian.
From the opening credits, Omar, powerfully, yet with restrained emotions, played by Adam Bakri, reveals the virginal intimacy between him and his love interest Nadja (Leem Lubany), that the everyday brutality of Israeli occupation distorts and corrupts, for the plain and simple reason that for the occupiers the West Bank and the aspiration of Palestinians for dignity and a homeland of their own, is nothing more than a battlefield cleared for war.There is no feeling of compromise in Abu-Assad's montage in showing the way the Israeli secret services entrap, torture and turn Palestinians informers who, to all purposes, is their "whore," or "less than humans" captives, expected to turn tricks until their last breath—a ghastly fate, only obviated by condemnation, in Omar's case to 90 years in prison for simply saying on tape, "I will not confess," four simple words that Israeli law allows to him up for life.
So, Omar makes a Faustian bargain with the Israeli agent Rami, played with blood- chilling delight by the Palestinian-American actor Waleed Zuaiter, who also produced the film.Bakri is a fly caught in Zuaiter's web.
This is caught by an almost clinical analytic camera —close ups, long views and a rhythms of editing that, at times, are hallucinatory and disorienting.Abu-Assad's Omar is the bloody wreckage of 46 years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian West Bank.
He manages to capture the villainy of Israel's intransigence in putting off a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian question until the Greek Kalends.Omar injects into the American consciousness a badly needed emotional explosiveness that is sorely missing on the effects of seemingly endless occupation of a captured people.
Abu-Assad brings to the screen destructive forces that warp both Israeli and Palestinian, as it destroys the humanity of one and the other.Abu-Assad doesn't allow compromises in the script in the way Lebanon's director Zaid Doueiri did in adapting Yamina Khadra's Attack, turning the narrative on its head.On the contrary, Omar is as much soul-searching as it is soul withering.
The Palestinian Movie, who took the Jury Prize " Certain Regard " at Cannes last year and is among the five finalists for the Oscar for best foreign film , is quite impressive thriller , but also one- sided in a manner that creating alienation from the characters leading it."Omar" is the fifth full-length film of the Palestinian director Hany Abu - Assad and the first film entirely funded by Palestinian Authority .Abu - Assad won acclaim for his film " Paradise Now ," which was nominated for an Oscar foreign film in 2005.
As "Paradise Now ," which use generic conventions of suspense and crime to describe a plot about two young Palestinians who plan to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, " Omar " uses the same conventions and creates an exciting and accessible film, which holds a clear political message .The film tells the story of Omar (an impressive debut of Adam Bakri, the son of actor and director Mohammad Bakri), a young Palestinian, who with his two friends , Amjad and Tariq , performs an assassination of an Israeli soldier .
Omar is arrested by the Shin Bet and asked to cooperate in order to incriminate his friends and thus save himself from prison and reunite with his beloved Nadia, sister of Tariq, which may be involved in a romantic triangle with his friend Amjad .If the plot sounds similar to the Israeli film " Bethlehem " , it is indeed because it's similar in many forms .
The problem in "Omar" is that unlike " Bethlehem " it presents an unilateral presentation of the conflict , which makes the Israeli side look like a demonic monster that abuse Palestinians for pleasure (two key scenes in the movie showing casual abuse of soldiers in Omar and atrocious abuse of the GSS agent at Omar during interrogation) and the separation barrier as an obstacle placed randomly for no reason in the middle of the village and designed solely to disrupt the lives of the Palestinians.Although the film have some harsh internal criticism over the violence and conservatism in Palestinian society , this party presented both over his advantages and disadvantages ,unlike the one-sided presentation of the Israeli occupier which makes it somewhat of a propaganda film .To his credit, the film is expertly directed and despite a certain tendency to melodramatic moments and repetition of key scenes , it is interesting viewing experience contains a small number of surprising narrative twists , suspenseful chase scenes and a high production level .
Omar is an Oscar-nominated film that was made in Israel and Palestinian territory by a filmmaker (Hany Abu-Assad) and actors who are apparently Israeli citizens but are ethnic Palestinians.
I hope there were no standing ovations at the end.The film is about a Palestinian guy (Omar, played by Adam Bakri) who, along with a couple friends, shoot an Israeli soldier.
I love these film, it's a thriller and love story, critical to Palestinian customs and Israeli occupation and politic.
Omar is a Palestinian who climbs the horrible concrete walls that separate his land from Israel to see his friend Tarek and his sister - Nadia - whom he is head over heels in love with, They have a third friend who also has the hots for the school girl Nadia.
Thia movie is not exactly about the fight for freedom and the end of the occupation of Palestine by Israel although the plot takes place on that frame and the three main protagonists are freedom fighters.
Omar the main character in the film is a Palestinian who lives in the Palestinian Territories, while his girlfriend Nadia an Arab Israeli lives in Israel.
He does this successfully, but throughout his relationship with Nadia, conflicts start to occur when Omar is sent to the police for being convicted of a crime he did not commit, which was killing one of the Israeli military soldiers.
Knowing that this is a film made by Palestinians, i thought in would be another tearful story beautifying and whitewashing the life in the Palestinian territories, and would just present a melodramatic aspect of the drama these people are going through.
There would be one more story about the "bad Jews" and "those poor people" (the Palestinians)who,"living under inhuman oppression just try to survive fighting courageously the Israeli occupation and its consequences on their everyday life".
A compelling drama of love, loyalty & betrayal, Omar offers an insight into the existing political & religious tension between Israelis & Palestinians that is captured from the latter's perspective and with the help of its composed direction, honest performances, raw photography & an unexpectedly shocking finale, it manages to make itself heard in a quite brutal manner.Omar tells the story of its titular character; a young Palestinian working as a baker who joins the freedom fight against Israel with two of his best friends but is apprehended after the killing of an Israeli soldier at a military base.
Tricked into confessing his association in the act & facing a lifetime sentence, his only way out is to work as an informant for the Israeli police, to which he agrees.Directed by Hany Abu-Assad, there is a tension looming over its premise from start to finish even though it's mostly a tragic love story than a political thriller.
The writing uses the difficult choices one ends up making under difficult circumstances to great effect, the characters are believable, performances are authentic, camera-work is excellent & although there are pacing issues, the drama remains absorbing for the most part.On an overall scale, Omar is an elegantly crafted drama that isn't about the ideology separating these two groups but is an exploration of the human condition & tries to capture what it's like to live in constant fear & oppression.
I think "Omar" would make (with the appropriate music) a fine opera, with the Israeli intelligence operative a character similar to Scarpia in "Tosca." Second, I hope the film will soon be available as a DVD.
Hany Abu-Assad's Omar is the Palestinian take on the Intelligence game that Bethlehem presented from the Israeli side.
The plot:Returning from the West Bank barrier after secretly meeting his girlfriend Nadia,Omar gets beaten up by Israeli soldiers.
In the end of the of the movie, he keeps his loyalty to Amjad by not telling the police office who actually killed the soldier.
The film's political bias begins with the harsh wall Omar has to scale to get to Nadia and back home.
The film's political bias begins with the harsh wall Omar has to scale to get to Nadia and back home.
I feel like Paradise Now was more about bringing light to the conflict and and real world situation, whereas Omar was more of a film with a far more structured story and scenes, that simply used the same setting as Paradise Now. I also thought the ending to Omar was very good.
Originally I thought Omar was going to use the gun to kill Amjad for many reasons, but it didn't end up that way..
Omar and his friends were involved in an Israeli soldier's death, and as a result he is forced to work as an informant for the Israelis, and betray not only his friends, but the love of his life, Nadia.
Throughout the film, Omar and Nadia were inseparable, and so in love.
For some reason, I wasn't really sad when he did this, because the Israeli had been pressuring and torturing Omar throughout the entire film as his informant.
Omar must climb the wall that separates the Palestinian territories from Israel.
Omar needed to capture his friend, Tarek, because he lead the mission to kill an Israeli soldier.