I know there are people who go nuts over films like this, but I found it interminably dull. Although I suppose I generally get the sort of thing the director is trying to do, I certainly don't "get" the movie. It doesn't help that it seems to go out of its way to make life in the places depicted seem a lot more dreary and surreal than is actually the case. The lack of coherence and excessive leaving of things open for interpretation is sure to attract the pretentious, but to me it just comes off as lazy film-making.
Off topic for a moment, the majority of other reviewers don't seem to realize that Nazareth is NOT in the West Bank; it's in Israel. Its inhabitants are all Palestinian, but they don't live under Israeli occupation (at least not in the commonly accepted use of the term); they are Israeli citizens. This doesn't mean they don't have problems or don't identify with Palestinians in the territories (or suffer discrimination - they certainly do) but there's a huge difference in daily life between a Palestinian living in Nazareth and one living in Jenin.
Anyway, it certainly contains some compelling images: the increasingly surreal fantasy sequences, the familiar everyday scenes like the hollering in Nazareth's streets or the kids beating on some unseen object, and my favorite, the hospital full of smokers, which nicely encapsulates the self-destructive habits that most of this region seems to be stuck in sometimes. Still, without any character development to speak of, what we're left with seems to just be a stream of consciousness that goes out of its way to be dreary and dull and doesn't go out of its way to unite its worthwhile moments into a solid complete product.
Of course, incomprehensible films like this are sure to be a hit with the self-consciously artsy, and this one was. I'm sure liberal arts majors can have a field day writing about the postmodern significance of the awkward silences and post-it notes, but I'll just go back and watch Paradise Now, Waltz With Bashir, or even The Band's Visit before I see this one again.
Off topic for a moment, the majority of other reviewers don't seem to realize that Nazareth is NOT in the West Bank; it's in Israel. Its inhabitants are all Palestinian, but they don't live under Israeli occupation (at least not in the commonly accepted use of the term); they are Israeli citizens. This doesn't mean they don't have problems or don't identify with Palestinians in the territories (or suffer discrimination - they certainly do) but there's a huge difference in daily life between a Palestinian living in Nazareth and one living in Jenin.
Anyway, it certainly contains some compelling images: the increasingly surreal fantasy sequences, the familiar everyday scenes like the hollering in Nazareth's streets or the kids beating on some unseen object, and my favorite, the hospital full of smokers, which nicely encapsulates the self-destructive habits that most of this region seems to be stuck in sometimes. Still, without any character development to speak of, what we're left with seems to just be a stream of consciousness that goes out of its way to be dreary and dull and doesn't go out of its way to unite its worthwhile moments into a solid complete product.
Of course, incomprehensible films like this are sure to be a hit with the self-consciously artsy, and this one was. I'm sure liberal arts majors can have a field day writing about the postmodern significance of the awkward silences and post-it notes, but I'll just go back and watch Paradise Now, Waltz With Bashir, or even The Band's Visit before I see this one again.