Probing the dark heart of terrorism

IN retrospect, trying to film a movie about Palestinian suicide bombers in the West Bank city of Nablus last year was “insanity,” said writer and director Hany Abu-Assad.

Production of “Paradise Now” was interrupted daily by nearby gunfire, and once an Israeli missile landed dangerously close -- prompting six crew members to quit.

Palestinian groups questioned the filmmaker’s motives, and one faction kidnapped the location manager, demanding that the production leave. (His release was secured by then-Prime Minister Yasser Arafat’s office.) After nearly a month of shooting, the risks became too great, and the production was moved to Nazareth for the final two weeks of shooting.

“A lot of danger was around us,” said Abu-Assad, a Palestinian who moved to the Netherlands when he was 19. “Now if I look back, I think, ‘How could I manage that? How could I concentrate on the movie, camera, actors, lights?’ ”

The result, though, is a film suffused with the gritty details of life in the occupied territories: the bleak, hazy landscape, the hostility at military checkpoints.

“Paradise Now” centers on two Palestinian friends in what may be their last days together. Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) are aimless youths working at a local garage until they are informed by a local militant group that they’ve been chosen to participate in a suicide bombing mission in Tel Aviv.

Although the narrative revolves around a very public deed, the drama is largely personal as both men wrestle with the implications of their decisions.

To write the script, Abu-Assad studied the interrogation transcripts of failed suicide bombers and interviewed people close to those who succeeded.

“Before making the movie, I thought the people were just brainwashed and fanatics,” he said. “You find they have stories; they have doubts; they have different opinions.”

Abu-Assad said that while he supports the end of the Israeli occupation, “Paradise Now” does not have a political agenda.

“It’s good to see things from a different point of view,” he said. “This is what I want -- more to open questions than to answer questions.”