For My Father (2008)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Dror Zahavi's For My Father is a thoughtful and moving Israeli film that balances the Jewish and Palestinian perspectives. As the title suggests, the two central characters take opposite positions vis a vis their duty to their respective fathers. Tarek agrees to become a suicide bomber to restore his father's reputation in the Palestinian community. His father was assaulted when discovered to have served the Israelis in order to facilitate Tarek's travel for his promising football career. His parents don't know his plan but beg him to return home safely. The beautiful 17-year-old Keren revolted against her father's orthodox Judaism and lives banished from her family. This mother too begs her child to return home. Their respective fathers' positions prevent them. Though we don't see Keren's father, his grip is personified by the young orthodox vigilantes who physically threaten Keren if she doesn't abandon her secular independence and submit to her father — and them. A lasciviousness and cruelty undermine their ostensible righteousness.When the now ambivalent Arab terrorist and the Jewish beauty meet, both are outsiders in their own communities. Each is pressured to submit to the will of their respective forbears, their societies' traditions — i.e., fathers. Having originally dismissed Terek, Keren comes to appreciate him, especially after he drives off her tormentors. After their brief idyllic escape, her tormentors have their way. They persuade the neighbourhood deputy that Tarek wielded a knife against them (a lie) and that he must be the terrorist known to have snuck into Tel Aviv (the truth, but with an asterisk: he's no longer certain about his suicidal and murderous mission). The pivotal supporting character is old man Katz. He initially appears as a madman, opening the public mains to waste the water. We learn he and his depressed, indeed suicidal, wife remain in despair over the loss of their soldier son. He died when the army, trying to toughen up their young men, denied him water. This father confronts the traditions that waste the lives of their youth — on either side of the Jewish-Palestinian divide.In Katz Zahavi demonstrates how enemies can bridge their differences, hatreds, cultural inheritances. He figures out why Tarek needs to buy a new detonator from him. But instead of turning him in — as the jealous Jewish vigilantes do — he takes a fatherly interest in the young man and tries to talk him out of his mission. Tarek, who during his enforced weekend in Tel Aviv has experienced the Israeli's humanity, has already modified his mission. He leaves on the beach the nails that would have created massive losses when he blows himself up in the market. His bomb and the army snipers kill only him and wound Katz. To the madness of the continuing 1948 war Katz has lost his new substitute son as well as his own. Karen has lost a potential lover and witnessed another reminder of the extremists' mortal futility — that freezes both sides.

FOR MY FATHER (Sof Shavua B'Tel Aviv) is a brilliant little film, a joint German/Israeli production that for once has the courage and wisdom to examine another vantage of a potential suicide bomber. Written by Ido Dror and Jonatan Dror and directed with great sensitivity by Dror Zahavi the story is a brave one, one that takes the viewer into the minds of those who live in Tel Aviv both as Israelis and as youths disillusioned by parental dominance and by the outsiders, or Palestinians.The film opens with a trio of men driving across the border into Tel Aviv to transport one of them as a suicide bomber - the quietly reluctant and sensitive Tarek (Shredi Jabarin). When the bomb fails to explode, he's left stranded in Tel Aviv until he's able to fix the detonator. The fact that Tarek is unable to detonate the bomb and will fail his mission opens the possibility to get to know the young man behind the terrorist mask, an opportunity we have not been offered before. Tarek encounters a young 17-year-old girl Keren (Hili Yalon) who wears earrings and brightly colored hair and short skirts in defiance of her conservative family and is mocked and beaten by young Israeli men for being an outcast. Her only friend is an old disillusioned man Katz (Shlomo Vishinsky) who likewise owns a tacky street vendor booth across from Keren. Tarek encounters Keren, protects her form her assailants, and they develop a close bond - Keren's desire to go swimming with Tarek is rebuffed because Tarek is still carrying the defective suicide bomb device under his shirt. In this one brief weekend we see that both Tarek and Keren have virtues, flaws, and unexpected facets to their personalities. It is also important to note that they both face as much pressure and harassment from their own communities as they do from their counterparts on the other side of the political and cultural divide. And in keeping with the total honesty of the story the ending will surprise and stun the viewer.The film is in Hebrew with English subtitles. The cinematography is excellent and the acting by the three principals as well as by the supporting cast is outstanding. This is a very important film, well deserving of all the honors it has received since it was first released in 2008. Grady Harp

This is not a good film; it is a very, very, good film. Here in the US the Palestinians are painted as pure hateful terrorists killing teenagers in pizza shops. This film is able to show that even suicide bombers are people. The prospective bomber's (Tarek) parents are shown as loving parents and not as fanatics praising dead martyrs and happy if their sons can achieve martyrdom. Tarek himself is a multi-faceted individual, not a focused uneducated fanatic. What I found most interesting are his motives - they have nothing do to with Islam, rather, he is motivated by a sense of family, honor, love of father, and hatred for those that caused the "downfall" of his family and his loss of the opportunity to play soccer. Although his "handlers" are short-sighted and evil people, they make an interesting point when they say "We (the Palestinians) have no Air Force." Indeed, they fight with the few weapons they have. If they had the hardware (and perhaps it is better that they don't), software and training the Israelis have, then their strategy would be quite different.I also liked very much the portrayal of the Israelis. Here we see that they are a complex hardly homogeneous people. Some are disgruntled refugees from other countries and not happy in Israel, some are intolerant believers, some are border atheists, some are smart, some are not so smart, some are trusting, some are suspicious, etc. I especially liked that it portrays the working class area and people of Tel Aviv - a nice change from the million dollar condos on the sea full of American Jews that we normally see on American TV.The acting is tremendous. You sympathize with most every character because the acting is so believable. You don't want any Israeli to die because you see them as real (and innocent) people. You also don't want Tarek to die because he also is real and innocent. Also he is torn between his hatred of all Israelis on one hand while on the other hand he has feelings of no hatred, even love, for those Israelis he meets and gets to know in just a few days.But most of all I so enjoyed Hili Yalon as Keren. One can get lost in her beautiful eyes. Her acting is suburb. She represents so many things - vulnerability, love of parents, non-conformity, naivety, etc.See this film; you won't regret it.

Sof Shavua B'Tel Aviv (2008) is a German-Israeli co-production shown in the U.S. as "For My Father." Directed by Dror Zahavi, the film follows a Palestinian, Tarek (Shredi Jabarin), who is sent to Tel Aviv as a suicide bomber. When the bomb fails to explode, he's left stranded in Tel Aviv until he's able to fix the detonator. The entire movie takes place during Tarek's weekend in Tel Aviv.Director Zahavi pulls off a coup, in that he makes his protagonist's mission understandable. It's hard to think of an audience being sympathetic to a terrorist bomber, but we can at least understand the internal logic behind Tarek's actions, even while we recoil at the thought of the suffering a terrorist bomb will cause.Added to this volatile mixture is a young, liberated Israeli woman, Keren, played by the beautiful Israeli actor Hili Yalon. Naturally, there's a chemistry between the young man and woman, although the differences that separate them make Romeo and Juliet's problems appear trivial by comparison.It's interesting that both Tarek and Keren are not cardboard characters. They have virtues, flaws, and unexpected facets to their personalities. Also interesting is the fact that they both face as much pressure and harassment from their own communities as they do from their counterparts on the other side of the political and cultural divide.We saw this film at the extraordinary Rochester Jewish Film Festival, but it will work well on a small screen. It's a provocative, troubling movie, and worth seeking out and watching.