X
- 2013
- R
- Cohen Media Group
- 1 h 42 m
- 2013
- R
- Cohen Media Group
- 1 h 42 m
Summary Amin Jaafari is an Israeli-Palestinian surgeon who has fully assimilated into Tel-Aviv society. His picture-perfect life is turned upside down when the police inform him that not only was his wife Sihem killed in a terrorist bombing but that she was the suicide bomber. Amin immediately rejects their accusation, but his conviction is shak...
Directed By: Ziad Doueiri
Written By: Joelle Touma, Yasmina Khadra, Ziad Doueiri
- 2013
- R
- Cohen Media Group
- 1 h 42 m
- 2013
- R
- Cohen Media Group
- 1 h 42 m
The Attack
74
6.7
Where to Watch
Summary Amin Jaafari is an Israeli-Palestinian surgeon who has fully assimilated into Tel-Aviv society. His picture-perfect life is turned upside down when the police inform him that not only was his wife Sihem killed in a terrorist bombing but that she was the suicide bomber. Amin immediately rejects their accusation, but his conviction is shak...
Directed By: Ziad Doueiri
Written By: Joelle Touma, Yasmina Khadra, Ziad Doueiri
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 24 Critic Reviews
74
75% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
25% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 24 Critic Reviews
74
75% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
25% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Although the subject matter is inherently disturbing, it’s hard to imagine any audience remaining unmoved by this mournful tale.
Remarkably accomplished and self-confident. In dramatic terms The Attack borrows a page from Alfred Hitchcock's playbook — an innocent in a strange land, delving into dangerous matters he doesn't understand. In political terms, though, the script is unsparing and ultimately bleak. It doesn't justify terrorism, but it does dramatize the rage and despair that dominate life in the occupied territories.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 18 User Ratings
6.7
67% Positive
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
17% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
17% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 18 User Ratings
6.7
67% Positive
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
17% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
17% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
A reviewer wrote, "The film is particularly affective at conveying the senselessness of trying to make sense of a conflict that has gained nothing beyond a vast waste of human life." This reviewer failed to get the powerful point. Western people whose thinking is based upon Enlightenment thinking, namely, statement of principles, logic, evidence, and modifying the principles based upon the evidence, cannot understand Arab mentality. I lived in Israel for several years. The Arab accepts certain principles and their conclusions, but ignores evidence and reality. When we use the word senseless we are the senseless people for refusing to educate pre-Enlightenment people to modern rational thinking.
Our hero visited Shechem, translated into English as Nablus, and visited a priest, who could not condemn suicide. This part of the story does not agree with my experience. Christians are not suicide killers, only members of the Islam faith. Bethlehem, where the Christian god was born, used to have a majority of Christians. The Moslems drove them out. Look at the numerical facts.
Otherwise, the language, people, and scenery very accurately portrayed modern Israel.
The powerful point is that since the Arabs do not employ modern rational thinking, they use emotions that are extremely powerful. The film gives an excellent feel of these powerful emotions. One of the very best I have ever seen. Once we ignore rational thinking and evidence, we can be subject to powerful, deadly forces. The lesson is that we must not give up hope, but keep struggling for rationality.
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Women make the best suicide bombers. They receive more media attention and generate greater mass hysteria. If they can kill innocent children, this creates the best publicity possible. The Attack, a film by Ziad Doueiri deals with such suicide bombing connected to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The story is told in such a powerful and inventive way that I left the theatre feeling as if my emotional center had been extracted, run over by a train, and then transplanted back inside. One way I seem to judge how good a film is is by how bad it makes me feel.
After seeing The Attack I thought immediately of Paradise Now (2005). It has the same lead actor and both films involve Tel Aviv bombings, but while Paradise Now’s suspense is generated by mystery involved in the story’s unfolding climaxing in a mega-unsettller of an ending, The Attack gives away all its plot secrets in the first act. The major conflict of the film takes place early. Climax hit, mystery solved, we are out to examine why the events happened. The film opens with the protagonist’s highest moment, so from here down is the only way to go.
Amin Jaafari, an ultra-successful Arab surgeon living in Tel Aviv receives a career achievement award. In his acceptance speech he praises a non-existent armistice of hostility between the Arab world and Israel. The irony of this speech is played out over and over again as he suffers blow after blow demonstrating the error of his judgment.
There is a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv and Jaafari’s wife disappears. She has forgotten her cell phone. All things lighting, photography and mood point to “oh no, she’s been killed.” Shockingly, not only has she been killed, she was actually responsible; She was the bomber. Married for 15 years, Jaafari tries to persuade others that he knew his wife well, that she could never do anything so terrible; we spend very little time wondering or investigating the trivialities of whether or not she did the deed. He gets a letter that was mailed before the bombing. It admits to the bombing and pleads, “Don’t hate me.”
This secret disclosed, Jaafari goes to Palestine to track down the people who organized her suicide. What we find out in Palestine is a wrenching tale of Jaafari’s own search for answers. He tries to come to terms with his wife as a mass murderer while at the same time still being madly in love with her. The more he mourns, the bigger the atrocity of his wife’s deed becomes, and ever the more realistic.
Jaafari’s fall from grace is a vivid representation that tragedy can strike at any time, to anyone. After seeing this film we are left with a striking awareness of our own vulnerability. Seeing an affluent, successful surgeon being betrayed by his wife, his family, his profession, and both of his home states leaves little hope for those of us that are less successful, non-surgeons.
Jaafari’s was ignorant. He disregarded all the signs, saw only what he wanted to see, and this contributed to his ultimate demise, but he was not exceptionally oblivious, nor was he in any way malicious or evil. He was human. We leave theatres hopefully trying not to make the same mistakes.
Report
One thing Doueiri didn't get from Tarantino is smirky attitude; The Attack is sad and resigned, but also tender.
The Attack is not just about an incident targeting Israelis. This is also the story of not knowing Palestinians.
Though director Ziad Doueiri’s uneven treatment of this provocative premise suffers from contrivance and implausibility, it nonetheless arouses profound questions about fanaticism, cultural identity, and the essential mystery of other people, even those we think we know best.
Imagine a male Lifetime movie fueled by Middle Eastern tensions, and you’d have Ziad Doueiri’s torn-from-Tel-Aviv’s-headlines melodrama, one which drops its handsome husband of a hero into a domestic nightmare.
Despite a remarkable performance by Suliman, who’s almost never off-camera, events become increasingly pat and implausible, with one explanatory scene played like a shadowy variation on Kevin Spacey’s monologue in “Se7en.”
“The Attack” is the story of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that impacts on the life of the Palestinian-born but totally assimilated Israeli educated and trained surgeon when he learns that a person extremely close to him is the perpetrator of the terrorist act. This film, partly in Arabic and partly in Hebrew (with subtitles) captures the emotions of both Arabs and Jews regarding such acts and each of their perspectives as to the horror and, in a warped way, their justification of them. Palestinian actor Ali Suliman plays the doctor and Israeli actress Reymond Amsalem his wife in this sometimes slow but nevertheless steady and interesting drama as our lead character seeks to find out why and how this crime was planned and performed. Directed by Ziad Doueiri who co-wrote the screenplay with Jollie Touma and Yasmina Khadia, these Arab creators attempt to examine and explain both sides of those engaged in this almost never ending conflict. Their efforts are indeed frustrated since the Arab reaction to the film is that it is not harsh enough towards the Israelis and the Israeli response is that it goes too far in seeing to humanize the plight of the Palestinians. Indeed, the Arab backers of the film withdrew their names in protest and regretted their not having read the script first. As a result the film has been boycotted by most Arab nations and criticized by many Israelis. They say a fair settlement of a dispute is when each side leaves the table unhappy. Here, too, the problems facing the respective factions are complex and so, with no easy way to paint an objective picture of the participants and their respective causes, neither one is satisfied at the result. This film educates and helps us, in some small way, to understand the complexities of the issues and their moral and ethical aspects. I give the film an 8 and recommend that, for its insight alone (in addition to fine performances) the film is definitely a must see.
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In the center of the movie is a renown Palestinian doctor working in a hospital in Tel Aviv. He receives an honorable award for his life-time career as a surgeon.
But soon after he learns that his wife had a secret life and became a suicide bomber who killed 17 people, most of them children.
The movie brings up many questions but does not offer any answers. What was especially interesting to me in that movie that it raised a question of split loyalties or affiliations. Black and white becomes grey, right and wrong intermingle.
The movie was boycotted by Arab League and banned in Lebanon.
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A man's quest to find the truth...
Adaptation of the french novel 'The Assassination'. The movie was so good, but I had a hesitation over the contents. The movie tried to be a too smart by being a neutral, hence failed to convince on that issue. The problem was, it sets in the real world around real conflict, but the facts were excluded. So that led many countries to ban in their market. The good thing was, to I like the movie, the story concentrates on the human curiosity and emotion.
I thought it was an okay movie until the end twist. It was not that grand, but very-very simple and potent. Awesome filmmaking, could have been a top contender if it would have nominated for the Oscar. I wanted to rate it higher, but I feel something is not right as it was based on the real subject, but a fictional account. I definitely recommend it because the result could be different for you with your viewpoint.
7/10
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The successful career of an Arab surgeon living in Israel is **** after his wife is killed in a bombing. When he discovers that she was the terrorist, he sets out to find her recruiters. The events leading up to his quest are somewhat involving, but once he leaves for Palestine, the pacing slows. Couple this with too much vague discussion about ideals and the momentum slams to a stop. What could have been a gripping investigation into the subject, falters with ineffective filmmaking. (In subtitles)
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The first 1/3 of the film is solid until it hits a brick wall and comes to a halt. The idea of the film, a doctor finding out his beloved wife is behind a terrorist attack, is interesting but so poorly executed. The last hour of the film is wasted on a senseless trip to find out the men responsible for initiating his wife into this world and then not doing a single thing about it. Quite literally just walks away and that's that.
It's such a disappointing film because it truly could have been the statement film of the year and instead, It devolves into a boring and weak cross country trip trying to find answers that he simply accepts and then walks away from as if nothing has happened through out the course of the film.
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Production Company
3B Productions,
Scope Pictures,
Douri Films,
Canal+,
Ciné+,
Random House Films,
Fresco Films
Release Date Jun 21, 2013
Duration 1 h 42 m
Rating R
Tagline Do you ever really know the one you love?
Awards
San Sebastián International Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 4 Nominations
Istanbul Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Marrakech International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
