Paradise Now and Walk on Water - Research Paper Example

Visual Arts and Film Studies: Final Paper: ‘Paradise Now’ and ‘Walk on Water’ 5 To begin with, in many plays ruler defeats himself. In the sub-chapter below we would choose two places from two different contexts to discuss how and why this is the case. Except ‘King is the King,’ it is possible to contrast and compare two playwrights, ‘Paradise Now’ and ‘Walk on Water.’ So we will firstly give an appropriate analysis to the first one, going steadily to the second film. Primarily, in ‘Paradise Now’ two Palestinian terrorists, brothers Said and Khaled went to Tel-Aviv, and this geographical and historical context determined a plot of the whole story because they needed to behave themselves like standard Jewish people. Nevertheless, in ‘Walk on Water’ Mossad agent, Eyal, needed to behave himself normally as for killing aged Nazi officer, therefore, his memory must have been active in terms of Holocaust and the Second World War, that is why his activity as a secret agent was determined by not geographical and social, but historical and cultural context. History is inextricable from the present and from current conflicts in the Middle East. In the sub-chapter that goes below we will study how the historical past affects the present in two works, ‘Paradise Now’ and ‘Walk on Water.’ From the very beginning it would go Israeli/Palestinian historical trauma, broadly – Jewish/Muslim; then, we will be focused on Holocaust trauma in perception of nowadays people, aged Nazi and young Mossad agent. Initially, in ‘Paradise Now’ two persons, Muslims and Palestinian Said and Khaled decided to commit suicide terrorism at Tel-Aviv. Obviously, these guys were so cruel because of permanent war between Israeli/Jewish and Palestinian/Muslim in the Middle East. However, they realized in a culmination of film that love, personal attitudes, fear, and personal death are much more important for Said and Khaled than all ideological implications of dogmatic religions, for example, Muslim fundamentalism and Judaist determinism. Furthermore, in ‘Walk on Water’ there was also a big trauma of Holocaust, and that is why young agent of Mossad decided to kill aged Nazi officer; from the other perspective, he felt in love with his grandsons, and failed to kill everybody. Analogically, human factor stopped the hostility and ideological determinism concerning truly troubled relations that could occur between Nazi officer and Mossad agent, but the film proves that when people obtain their human faces with dignity it is so hard to give up being individual person – instead of being blocked by ideological masks. The films ‘Walk on Water’ and ‘Paradise Now’ centrally ‘stage’ the Israeli and the Palestinian, respectively, as soldiers. In this sub-chapter we will discuss the ways in which the films present what can be a stereotype of the Israeli Mossad agent and the Palestinian ‘terrorist’ in order to critique these images we frequently see repeated in cultural media. Accordingly, we firstly will give an analysis to ‘Paradise Now’ and then ‘Walk on Water;’ ultimately, it will be a contrast and compare implications from these two films in order to answer on proposed question about two big stereotypes of the Middle East in worldwide cinema – Israeli Mossad agent and Palestinian ‘terrorist.’ Firstly, ‘Paradise Now’ by Hanu Abu-Assad, 2005, represented a stereotype on Palestinian terrorists, brothers Said and Khaled, in a deconstructive manner, full of irony, criticism, absurd, and skepticism. We do not want to retell the whole story’s plot now, but we will be concentrated on the most vital suggestions and key-points. There were some of them, the most crucial ones. Initially, there was a woman called Suha, Said’s love. Then, it appeared that Said’s father was ‘ameel,’ a collaborator working with Israeli. Also, Said cancelled his suicide attack while he saw a child on board. Therefore, some key-points are relevant in the film’s plot. There are issues of historical memory (Said’s father presented like ‘ameel’), love situation (Suha’s person, character, and figure), and concern of generosity and importance of every kind of life in the planet. Furthermore, ‘Walk on Water’ by Eytan Fox, 2004, depicted a cultural media collective stereotype on the Israeli Mossad agent, Eyal, who had a request for one Hazi officer, responsible for Holocaust. Therefore, except ‘kibbutz’ and Holocaust issues, there in film also aroused concerns of homophobia, because Axel was a gay. This film could be treated from the side of its visuality and overall meaning as also full of irony, absurd, skepticism, and criticism. Moreover, deep issues of historical memory are co-existed with personal and societal concerns and implications of Israel and Germany. From the other side, religious diversity was also examined between Jewish people, for example, Eyal, and Cristian people, like Axel. But it happened rather in eased and funny manner, than in deeply serious one. To conclude with, these films, ‘Paradise Now’ and ‘Walk on Water’ could be regarded as dedicated to depicting of two different stereotypes, Palestinian terrorist and Israeli agent of Mossad. These films were produced in the same time, their directors are friends until nowadays, and methods or their visual effects that lied deeply in the plot are that sometimes individual attitudes ruin traditional beliefs, stereotypes, and authoritarian values of central powers or dominated religion. That is why the ruling rhetoric in them was deconstruction – reduction, irony, absurd, skepticism, criticism. In the sub-chapter that goes below we would answer on how do two of the writers, Hanu Abu-Assad and Eytan Fox used satire, irony or the absurd in their works, as well as whether laughter served them in their critiques. In fact, we will answer on this issue using firstly ‘Paradise Now’ and then ‘Walk on Water.’ Accordingly, satire, irony, and absurd, as well as criticism and skepticism, are the dominant instruments of presenting things in ‘Paradise Now.’ We would not retell all the funny situations along the film, except this vital and fundamental tone of the narrative. For example, from the very beginning Said and Khaled behaved themselves very concentrated and coordinated, and afterwards they are split, forgetting all religious dominants in the light of their human and personal problems, as love, death, and memory, and this ‘paradigm shift’ is done within absurd, irony, and satire. Additionally, ‘Walk on Water’ is a film where some big truths, for example, historical trauma of Holocaust for all Jewish people, became compared with homophobia of Eyal in his relation to Axel. To conclude with, identity of a woman is particularly susceptible to conflict in the Middle East. Therefore, in this sub-chapter we will discuss such a trait that playwrights and film makers have often used women as characters to symbolically reflect on both cultural abuses one society or culture afflicts another with. From the other perspective, contemporary Middle-Eastern plays/films identify in the woman a possibility of redemption or paradigm shift. So we will discuss this thesis in the sub-chapter below based on one of the main characters of ‘Paradise Now,’ female called Suha, Said’s beloved person – in order to come to some overall suggestions afterwards. In fact, Suha could be treated as a character of individualization concerning the Middle East affairs; I mean state of ideological, political, and cultural hypnosis. In ‘Paradise Now’ female character of Suha was used in the second meaning: not ‘to symbolically reflect on both cultural abuses one society or culture afflicts another with,’ but like ‘a possibility of redemption or paradigm shift.’ This paradigm shift could be seen in ideology with personal traits and human faces instead of impersonal truth and impersonal and anti-human positions of religious beliefs within Middle East, Arab or Jewish people. This female character of ‘Paradise Now’ proves that impersonal truths or religious beliefs could not be supported and verified by humans because of their irrational nature. ‘Suha’ as a mode of perception exemplified that human could verify only human and deeply personal things instead of policy of ‘truth’ or ‘false’ supported by different political, social, and cultural institutions for diversity of ideas not for co-union of people what is the aim. Read More