Now playing in Israel

KAIS NASHEF, who plays a suicide bomber in “Paradise Now,” appears at peace with the storm the film has ignited with its Oscar nomination for best foreign-language picture.

Relaxing in a well-known Tel Aviv cafe -- the sort of place often targeted by bombers during more than five years of conflict -- Nashef said he was heartened by the debate over aspects of the film, from whether it is too kind toward Palestinian bombers to the proper designation for the movie’s geographic origin.

“It makes me optimistic that all these discussions are around a movie, and not real death. There’s real death all the time,” said Nashef, 27, who plays one of two fictional friends given the opportunity to carry out a bombing in Tel Aviv. “This is more of a cultural discourse.”

“Paradise Now,” which opened here last fall, stirred little public ruckus until it won the Golden Globe award in January for best foreign-language film. That prize and the Oscar nomination have fanned an intense political debate around the Arabic-language movie and its director, Hany Abu-Assad.

Yossi Zur, an Israel software engineer whose 16-year-old son died in a bombing in Haifa in 2003, gathered 31,000 signatures in an attempt to force the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to rescind the film’s nomination.

“Such a film about suicide murderers and the messages it brings with it shouldn’t get any awards,” Zur said, adding that the Oscar ceremony would fall on the third anniversary of his son’s death.

Some Israelis were incensed that the organizers of the Golden Globes listed the film as coming from “Palestine,” because there is no state by that name.

“The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. was not appointed by the international community to give out franchises for establishing sovereign nation states,” columnist Sever Plotzker wrote in Yediot Aharonot, an Israeli daily newspaper. “The organizers of the Golden Globe contest were not, therefore, given a permit to establish ‘Palestine.’ ”

Israel quietly lobbied Oscar organizers in favor of “Palestinian Authority,” the term that applies to the formal Palestinian government structure in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The official Oscar website lists the movie as from Palestine, though organizers may opt for a different designation on awards night.

In addition, the Israeli media reported efforts by “powerful Israelis” and others aimed at dissuading academy members from casting their votes for “Paradise Now.”

It should come as little surprise that the film, which treats its young bomber protagonists with a human touch, would set off furious reactions in a place where hundreds of Israeli civilians have died in attacks and security guards routinely screen patrons entering buses, shopping malls and cafes.

A number of Israeli commentators criticized the film for approaching the would-be bombers -- a pair of auto mechanics in the battle-ravaged West Bank city of Nablus -- with understanding, but ignoring the gruesome toll that bombings take.

“The message of ‘Paradise Now’ is simple: We’re all people, even mass murderers. You see, anyone has the potential to blow up children and babies in a restaurant. It can happen to anyone, like dandruff,” one Israeli reviewer scoffed.

Abu-Assad, who is an Arab from the Israeli city of Nazareth and refers to himself as Palestinian, has said he strove to create a realistic portrayal of suicide bombers and did extensive research on the topic before beginning three months of filming in Nablus in 2004.

Production took place amid Israeli curfews and the echo of weapons fire. At one point, the film’s location manager was seized by Palestinian gunmen apparently displeased over the project.

Nashef, unshaven with a mop of shaggy curls and milky green eyes, said he saw his role as Said, who seems ambivalent about going through with the attack, as an opportunity to peel away some of the mystery surrounding suicide bombers by examining the conditions from which they arise.

“Like almost everybody, I was completely shocked by it. How could they do it? How could it happen?” he said, speaking in careful English.

Nashef, an Arab from the Israeli town of Taibe, attended drama school in Tel Aviv and is at home in this largely Jewish city. Chain-smoking Winstons during an hourlong interview, he said he considers bombings wrong but doesn’t want to stop there.

“People should be shocked. But you should think deeper, too,” he said. “Until now, Israelis saw suicide bombers as demons, as something not quite human. It’s a step further to know they are human, to know it’s a human deed.

“Blowing up a bus in a suicide is a human deed [by] somebody with legs and hands, somebody who played football when they were young, somebody who has a mother.”

Despite the difficult subject matter, plenty of Israelis are making their way to the movie, which is playing at select art houses. It screened in the West Bank city of Ramallah last fall but has not been shown elsewhere in the West Bank or Gaza Strip because there are no other movie theaters. (The movie, which cost about $2 million to make, has grossed more than $3 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.)

“It was extremely uncomfortable to view. Today when I told people at work that I’m going to see the film, they said to me: ‘What are you going to that movie for?’ ” said Dana Ram, a twentysomething Israeli viewer emerging from a Tel Aviv cinema on a recent evening. “People think that the terrorists are depicted in a positive way. But that’s not the case. It’s just depressing, since that’s the situation -- a situation that’s going nowhere.”

Special correspondent Tami Zer contributed to this report.