The Attack

The Attack

‘The Attack’ is the best type of anti-war film, quiet in tone and yet truly frightening in illustrating the scourge of our era: terrorism, which can hit anyone at any time, anywhere. It’s also a love story and a movie about having everything. Then losing it all in an instant.

Though the movie takes its time, it never feels slow or bloated. Unlike movies that flow over you, ‘The Attack’ demands that you look and listen. It’s a film for grown-ups; people who can go along with the hero’s journey from being a happily married, kind, highly successful and revered surgeon to losing his wife and finding out she had another whole secret life. And his career takes a couple of hits too.

‘The Attack’ opens with Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman) accepting an award for lifetime achievement in his career. As he notes graciously in his speech, he is the first Arab to be so honored in 41 years (a date that coincides exactly with the start of terrorist activities against Israel). At the top of his field, respected/appreciated by his mostly Israeli colleagues/friends indeed seeming to embody/spoke passionately about the possibilities for peaceful coexistence.

But then comes next day suicide bombing rocks Tel Aviv & body of Amin’s wife Siham (Reymonde Amsellem) is brought into/identified at Amin’s hospital with injuries that indicate she was bomber herself. After period of denial & brutal interrogation by Israeli police Amin goes to Nablus Palestinian territory on West Bank where Siham was heading to retrace her steps/figure out why she did what she did. We know no more than this scared man does about what has happened; we learn only as much as he does but through his eyes.

There are just enough flashbacks to fill us in on their love affair not something you would expect in a thriller about terrorism. One indelible image shows them riding a motorcycle, Siham in her wedding dress whipping by against the stark beauty of the Middle East.

But the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or “the conflict,” as it’s known to those living with it is ever-present on everyone’s periphery. Two powerful documentaries on this topic were nominated for an Oscar last year (“The Gatekeepers,” retrospective thoughts from members of the Israeli Secret Police; and “5 Broken Cameras,” about a Palestinian photographer documenting land struggles). But this fiction film makes deeper emotional dents: The politics are very personal if we care about the main characters of the movie. Which we do. Especially Siham, who is both sultry and idealistic that’s a hard combo to pull off.

There was one thing about the movie that bothered me: I thought that Amin, who is shown as being in every other way such an empathic man, hangs his head and looks downward when he grieves. Another thing is the Israeli interrogation team; I think the actors were a little too gung-ho, even Uri Gaviel as Captain Moshe, who is usually so effective. The number of bullet-headed bald Israelis is so great that sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart.

But these are minor quibbles. Lebanese director Doueiri, here working as a writer with his wife, trained in the U.S., and was a cinematographer for Quentin Tarantino. Happily it’s not so much the violence which comes through; it’s the polished look, for instance showing Tel Aviv with its brightly lit nighttime grid of cars whooshing by next to the overwhelming poverty of the Palestinian neighborhoods. It’s hard to think of another movie which so subtly and smartly presents various positions in a dispute without coming down on any one side.

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