Omar, a gripping new West Bank-set thriller that's the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar submission from Palestine, begins and ends close-up on the face of the film's handsome title character (promising newcomer Adam Bakri). Over the course of 98 minutes we will watch this face in various states of repose and extreme agitation, will witness it beaten and bloodied during the course of an Israeli security interrogation, will see it responding to jokes, some rather corny, and will come to wonder what the mind behind the face is thinking, what this young man will stoop to doing when the chips are down.
It's a tribute to the art of Palestinian/Dutch filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad (Oscar-nominated for his provocative 2005 fiction piece about the fate of a pair of suicide bombers, Paradise Now ) that we can develop a deep movie-crush on his sexy boy Omar without necessarily identifying with or even fully understanding his political aspirations. Omar shows just how far we have come regarding the still-messy sectarian war raging through what Christians like to call "the Holy Land." By its very existence, Omar is a sign of progress, showing just how adept a filmmaker has to be to influence a sophisticated film crowd.
Politics aside, you will likely be caught up in the gritty plight of a young Palestinian baker who must scale the massive Israeli security wall just to see his beloved, Nadia (the ambiguously flirtatious Leem Lubany), and who must also be solicitous of the feelings of her strict older brother, Tarek (Eyad Hourani). Tarek teaches Omar and his friend Amjad (Samer Bisharat) the 101's of urban guerrilla warfare, using small-bore rifles and discarded microwave ovens as targets.
As Omar is mustering the courage to ask Tarek for Nadia's hand, the three young men plot an attack on the nearby Israeli army base. The attack is methodically executed, but under this skilled filmmaker's vision we can see just how random and feckless the most politically motivated violence can be. As Amjad aims his rifle at the Israeli soldiers behind the barbed wire, his aim capriciously moves among three or four possible targets before dispatching one hapless soldier as he pushes a handcart.
Almost as soon as the fatal shot is fired, the Israeli authorities are on Omar's ass, and after a very thrilling chase through an urban market, Omar is captured and subjected to a brutal interrogation by an Israeli intelligence officer (Waleed F. Zuaiter). This depiction of intelligence-gathering torture is far superior to the evasions of the American film Zero Dark Thirty. Told he must spy on his friends and hand Tarek over to the Israelis, Omar appears to comply, but everything in his life conspires to make his every move appear to be a betrayal to folks on both sides.
Paradoxically, Omar's strength lies in its ability to thrill you into thinking about the unthinkable. The director of this provocative thriller withholds his withering climax to the last heart-throbbing moment as the screen goes black on our gorgeous hero's face. The envelope, please.