PARADISE NOW Acquired by Warner Independent
February 24th, 2005 by Andre Soares
Warner Independent Pictures has acquired North American and U.K. rights to Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad’s controversial French-German-Dutch production Paradise Now, which revolves around the last 48 hours in the lives of two Palestinian suicide bombers.
Some have accused Abu-Assad’s film of humanizing the bombers, who, shockingly, are indeed human beings who happen to commit atrocious deeds. (The Academy Award-nominated Downfall suffered the same sort of criticism because it portrays Adolf Hitler as a human being capable of the evilest deeds, instead of your usual one-shade-of-black movie monster depictions.) At this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Paradise Now won the Blue Angel Award as Best European Film and the Amnesty International Award.
The Israeli Film Fund announced in Berlin that it would offer financial support to Paradise Now if it gets distributed in Israel. So far, there have been no takers.
2 Responses to “PARADISE NOW Acquired by Warner Independent”
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I think it’s very positive, this trend of late towards films that humanize those we would rather think of as inhuman. It helps us to seek solutions to very human problems instead of only blaming.
People got all riled up about this film. I found it highly effective, very touching, and in no way pro-terrorism.