MOVIE - Omar

NR (1:38)

Limited release 2/21/14 (Nominated for an Academy Award)

Viewed at Loft with Sheila 3--5-14

RT Critic: 88 Audience: 83

Cag: 5: Outstanding film

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad

Adopt Films

In Arabic with subtitles

The actor who played Omar, Adam Bakri, was mesmerizing.

My comments:  What a story!  (And what an incredibly high wall).  I'm thinking this took place in Jerusalem/West Bank/Occupied Territories - will do a little more research now, which is usually the way of it, right?  This was the only tiny problem I had - I had to spend a little too much time figuring out the setting.  I could understand the language being spoken was Arabic, but so were all the police-types.  I had no pre-information, but now that I've read the review, I'm glad I didn't.  Watching this movie with no previous "clue" about its content was the best thing I could have done.  The ending fit perfectly with the character and personality of the protagonist.  Anything else would have been untrue to his innermost character.  Added note:  I can't imagine living like this.  On either side, Palestinian or Israeli.  Human beings are human beings.  How do I know what I'd do if I were put into non-human situations?

Reviews: A tense, gripping thriller about betrayal, suspected and real, in the Occupied Territories. Omar (Adam Bakri) is a Palestinian baker who routinely climbs over the separation wall to meet up with his girl Nadja (Leem Lubany). By night, he's either a freedom fighter or a terrorist-you decide-ready to risk his life to strike at the Israeli military with his childhood friends Tarek (Eyad Hourani) and Amjad (Samer Bisharat). Arrested after the killing of an Israeli soldier and tricked into an admission of guilt by association, he agrees to work as an informant. So begins a dangerous game-is he playing his Israeli handler (Waleed F. Zuaiter) or will he really betray his cause? And who can he trust on either side? Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now) has made a dynamic, action-packed drama about the insoluable moral dilemmas and tough choices facing those on the frontlines of a conflict that shows no sign of letting up. 

21. Taken - Erin Bowman

#1 in what I'm sure will be a series

Genre: Fantasy

Goodreads Rating: 3.78 (over 1400 ratings)

My Rating: 4.5 Liked it a whole lot

Acquired: TPPL

Setting: Eastern US in the future

1^st sentence/s: "Today is the last day I will see my brother."

My comments:  4.5. Good story. Really good story. I'm sure this is the first in a series, and I'll be the first in line to grab the next one. Erin Bowman has set up a love triangle, a move to a new setting, and the possibility of adding new characters to an already strong list. There are so many dystopian novels out there now that it boggles me how many new plot ideas and scenarios authors can come up with. I really liked this one a lot.

Goodreads Review:  There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone.  They call it the Heist.  Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive.  Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side?