Based
on a novel by Yasmina Khadra, Lebanese director
Ziad Douiere's The Attack is about a man without
a country. Unlike Philip Nolan in Edward Everett
Hale's classic novella who has been exiled from
his country forever, however, Dr. Amin Jafaari
(Ali Suliman), a respected Israeli Arab doctor,
never had a country to begin with. The film,
about a man whose life is turned upside down in
the course of a single moment, is a gripping
suspense thriller, an intimate love story, a
poignant personal drama, and a powerful
political statement. What it adds up to is
superior entertainment. Unfortunately, the film
has been banned by the Arab League for the crime
of filming in Israel, limiting its potential to
reach a bigger audience.
The film opens with Dr. Jafaari delivering his
acceptance speech at a prestigious medical
conference where he has been honored as the
first Arab ever to receive an important medical
award. Oddly, his wife Siham (Reymond Amselem)
is visiting relatives in Nazareth and is not
with him to celebrate the apex of his career.
Before going on stage, he receives a call from
Siham but tells her that he cannot talk and will
call her later. That is the last time that he
will ever hear her voice. The next day, while at
the hospital, Amin hears a loud explosion and
knows from experience that a suicide bombing has
taken place and will bring many injured and
dying victims to the hospital.
Dr. Jafaari, who has always treated both Arabs
and Israelis, works feverishly to save as many
lives as possible, even though a Jewish victim
refuses to be treated by an Arab and spits in
his face. Amin's world of safety and respect is
torn apart when he learns that his wife may be
the suicide bomber responsible for the death of
17 people including 11 children. Arrested and
mercilessly grilled by a relentless Israel
Intelligence officer (Uri Gavriel), he is told
that the bomber has been positively identified
by forensic evidence as his wife but he is in
denial. It is only after he receives a letter
from Siham in which she tells him not to hate
her that he becomes convinced of the impossible.
The letter is mailed from Nablus, a Palestinian
city on the West Bank, but Amin withholds the
information from his friend Raveed (Dvir
Benedek), a high-ranked police officer. Provided
sanctuary by Kim Yehuda (Evgenia Dodina), a
Russian colleague, Amin is distraught by the
realization that his wife of fifteen years had a
secret life that she never shared with him.
Mirroring Denis Villeneuve's 2010 film
Incendies, he travels to Nablus at great
personal risk to trace the roots of Siham's
involvement, questioning family and friends to
find answers. As Amin seeks out those
responsible, he is told by his nephew Adel
(Karim Saleh) who was deeply involved,
"Something snapped in her head," and by Sheik
Marwan (Ramzi Makdessi) that he has no business
there and to return to Tel Aviv before he brings
the Israeli Intelligence down on his people (why
Israeli intelligence did not follow him to
Nablus is not explained).
An Arab leader in the Christian church tells
him, "We're not Islamists and we're not
fundamentalists, either. We are only the
children of a ravaged, despised people, fighting
with whatever means we can to recover our
homeland and our dignity," and adds, "I never
met your wife," the priest declares, "I wish I
had." When Amin learns that Sahim is considered
a hero and a martyr with her picture posted all
over the city, he begins to feel trapped between
his loyalty to the Arab cause and to his Israeli
colleagues who opened so many doors for him and
his wife. Visiting the rubble of Jenin, a
Palestinian refugee camp that was bombed by the
Israelis, he starts to sense the anger behind
his wife's radicalization.
Doueiri presents a balanced picture of the
feelings on both sides, and The Attack is not a
propaganda film. Although it is about the
seemingly impassable political divide that
separates the Israeli and Arab worlds, the film
is basically a look at the human cost of the
conflict. A sensitive and poetic story of the
love between two people shown in flashbacks, the
film asks the question - can we ever really know
another person, even those we have been intimate
with for many years? Can we ever know what goes
on in the deepest layer of their being, how they
"sense" the world? Can we even know ourselves,
who we really are? For Amin, who must put the
pieces of his life back together, there are many
questions, but few answers, only emotional scars
that will last a lifetime.
