"Paradise Now" wins Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film

Hany Abu-Assad and Bero Beyer still cannot believe that their film, "Paradise Now," won the prize for best foreign language film at the Golden Globe awards ceremony on Monday.

"I always hoped that the film would go as far as possible," said Bero, who wrote the screenplay with Assad, yesterday, "but we were realistic. Everything went gradually. At first, we were just thankful that the film received widespread distribution throughout the United States, and then we were thankful for the favorable reviews that we got, but winning a Golden Globe - that really is above and beyond."

Abu-Assad stresses the warm reactions and compliments he actually received from Israel after the win. "These reactions and congratulations warm my heart," said the Palestinian director, whose film follows two Palestinian youths who set out to commit a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

"Never in my life did I believe I'd win this prize. The other films competing against me, including the French film "Merry Christmas" (Joyeux Noel) and the Chinese film "The Promise," (Wu ji) were so good that to me, merely being a contender was a great honor."

When he was asked about his film's chances of winning the Oscar for best foreign film (for which the nominees will be announced at the end of the month), he was only able to say: "No, no, no, that's too much."

He is happy that thanks to his film, it is possible to relate to Palestinians not just in negative contexts such as terrorist attacks, but also in artistic contexts.

"Palestine is still not a state," said Abu-Assad, "and now we are being recognized as people who are entitled to be free. That is my real accomplishment." Israeli producer Amir Harel, who is one of the producers of "Paradise Now," expressed the hope that the win "would prompt people to take note of what is happening here."

As a result of the film's win, the Tel Aviv Cinematheque decided to bring "Paradise Now" back to the screen and starting tomorrow, the film will be shown twice nightly.

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LOS ANGELES, January17 , 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Winning the much coveted Golden Globe for best foreign language film, Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad has used his acceptance speech to call for an independent state for his people and an end to the injustices done by the Israeli occupation.

"[The prize is] a recognition that the Palestinians deserve their liberty and equality unconditionally," Assad told a host of Hollywood stars, including Harrison Ford and Virginia Madsen, on Monday, January 16 , reported Reuters.

The Palestinian filmmaker said he did not taken sides in his masterpiece "Paradise Now," but had tried to explain why two simple garage mechanics would be willing to kill themselves and others.

"I don't believe my film is controversial. It just shows something from a different side that we are all worried about," he told reporters backstage at the Globes.

On May 14 of every year, Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day which marks the creation of Israel on the rubble of Palestine and the bodies of the Palestinians.

Run since 1944 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the Golden Globe awards are given to motion pictures and television programs.

Winning the Globe gives "Paradise Now" a major boost for a possible Oscar nomination. No Palestinian film has ever been nominated to the most prestigious prize in the showbiz.

The film made its World Premiere at the Berlin Film Festival2005 , where it won the Blue Angel Award for Best European Film, the Berliner Morgenpost Readers' Prize and the Amnesty International Award for Best Film.

“Injustice”

Assad said his film wants the viewer to understand the mind-set that produces such acts as bombings, mainly because of injustice done to Palestinians and peace impotence under Israeli occupation.

"The feeling of the impotence is so strong that they kill themselves and others to say, 'I am not impotent.' It is a very complex situation, but the overriding umbrella is the injustice situation."

The characters' words underlie that thought as they go through their daily lives in occupied territory, which the film presents as an airless, hermetically sealed prison.

"Under the occupation, we're already dead ... In this life we are dead anyway ... If we can't live as equals, at least we can die as equals" are typical refrains in the film.

"Paradise Now" tells the story of two young Palestinians as they embark upon what may be the last 48 hours of their lives.

The film shows their typical daily lives, which grind on Israeli rocket attacks and crushing poverty.

The two childhood friends have been preparing to blow themselves up in Israel for most of their lives but reconsider their actions at the end of the movie.

Assad wrote "Paradise Now" in 1999 and shot it in Nablus in2004 .

To make the movie, he had to dodge a missile attack from Israel plus skirt landmines and threats from some Palestinians.

Famed Israeli psychologist Yisrael Oran had underlined a stark difference between suicidal and "self-bombing" operations.

"The psychological incentive for committing suicide shows up as an internal unbearable pain and hopelessness the only way to stop is thought to be killing oneself," he said.

"But the "self-bomber" feels the only way to change the tough conditions others are inflicted by is to take it hard and give up his life as a last-ditch attempt to evade permanent threatening danger."

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