[ThisWeek] Paradise Now at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

[thisweek at kenworthy.org]

This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre...

Paradise Now (PG-13)
Friday, January 20
7:00 PM
Saturday & Sunday, January 21 & 22
4:30 & 7:00 PM
$5/Adult; $2 children 12 and younger
KFS passes accepted for Sunday showings
(see Review below)
* * *

Next week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre-

The Squid & the Whale (R)
Friday, January 27
7:00 PM
Saturday & Sunday, January 28 & 29
4:45 & 7:00 PM
$5/Adult

Coming in February: Sirius Idaho Theatre presents Sight Unseen (see press
release below); Capote; Pride & Prejudice

Regular movie prices:  $5/adult, $2/children 12 and younger
KFS passes accepted year-round for Sunday movies!

For more information, go to www.kenworthy.org or call 208-882-4127.
* * *

Sirius Idaho Theatre presents

Sight Unseen
by Donald Margulies

Evening performances:
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, February 2, 3, & 4 at 7:30 PM
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, February 9, 10, & 11 at 7:30 PM

Matinee:
Saturday, February 11 at 2:00 PM

Directed by Pam Palmer

CAST

Jonathan - Donal Wilkinson
Nick - Peter Aylward
Patricia - Sally Eames-Harlan
Grete - Anna Cottle

Tickets available at BookPeople of Moscow (521 S. Main St.)

$15 for Adults, $10 for Seniors, $5 for Students

Tickets also available an hour before each performance at the Kenworthy
Performing Arts Centre box office.
If you would like to purchase tickets and have them sent to you, email or
call John Dickinson (johnd at moscow.com, 208-301-4361).

Sight Unseen is the story of an American mega-artist so successful he's had
the obligatory profile in Vanity Fair and can claim astronomical prices for
his works sight unseen from a waiting list of wealthy patrons. In England
for a retrospective of his paintings, the artist goes into the countryside
to visit his original muse and lover, the "sacrificial shiksa" whom he
abandoned in his quest for the opulent life which now devours him. Donald
Margulies won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 and Sight Unseen won the Obie Award
for best new American Play in 1992.

"Šyou can tell when a play has gripped its audience, for no one seems to
breathe, let alone shift in his seat. This phenomenon can be observedŠat
Sight Unseen...." ‹NY Times.

Sight Unseen contains language that may offend some audience members.

For more information about the play or to volunteer with Sirius Idaho
Theatre contact Pam Palmer, Managing Artistic Director, at 208-596-2270
<siriusidahotheatre at gmail.com
* * *

This week¹s review-

Paradise Now

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad; written (in Arabic and Hebrew, with English
subtitles) by Mr. Abu-Assad and Bero Beyer
Rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has strong language and graphic
talk about suicide and murder.
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes


As reviewed by Sean Axmaker writing for the Seattle

Hany Abu-Assad's "Paradise Now" follows the last days of two young
Palestinian friends from the West Bank chosen for a suicide bombing mission
in Tel Aviv. It's a volatile subject and Abu-Assad's thoughtful thriller
stokes the debate.

Said (Kais Nashef), the centered, easygoing mechanic, and his short-fused
childhood buddy Khaled (Ali Suliman), are separated when they discover
Israeli police waiting for them before the mission has even begun. While
Khaled scrambles to find his friend (the group assumes the missing Said is
an informant), Said finds himself on an odyssey, seeing his West Bank
village though fresh eyes.

Abu-Assad isn't above provocation (the ritual cleansing of the men ends in a
scene designed to evoke Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper"), but his
concern is exploring the conditions and the attitudes that transform young
men into terrorists. Suha (Lubna Azabal), a European-raised Arab woman who
has brought her hope and idealism back to the West Bank, takes the opposing
argument in the more polemic scenes of the film.

The real story is glimpsed in the poverty, the oppression and the culture
around them. Videos of martyrs and collaborators are hot commodities among
the young, yet the community elders reject violent resistance. They've seen
how it only perpetuates the cycle, breeding a new generation of angry young
men driven by rage, righteous indignation and a radical reading of the
Quran, less interested in justice than retribution.

It's an explosive topic and Abu-Assad walks a fine line through a minefield
of issues, all of them explored with intelligence and integrity. He gives a
voice to every argument (Said provides a chillingly articulate justification
for his decision) and a dignity to all of his characters. That's what gives
the film its tragic dimension. The cycle continues.
 

As reviewed by Stephen Holden writing for the New York Times

"And what happens next?" a young Palestinian terrorist asks after receiving
his instructions for carrying out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

"You will be met by two angels," comes the offhand, none too convincing
reply in "Paradise Now," a taut, ingeniously calculated thriller that
fixates on the flashpoint where psychology and politics ignite in
self-destructive martyrdom.

Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), best friends from childhood,
belong to a terrorist cell in Nablus on the West Bank that is about to
undertake its first suicide mission in two years. The film, directed by Hany
Abu-Assad, an Israeli-born Palestinian, from a screenplay he wrote with Bero
Beyer, the film's Dutch producer, follows them over the two days leading up
to the climactic deed. Beginning shortly before they are tapped by an
unidentified Palestinian organization to carry out the mission, the movie
culminates less than 48 hours later in a denouement whose outcome remains
uncertain until the last second.

Along the way, "Paradise Now" sustains a mood of breathless suspense.
Politics aside, the movie is a superior thriller whose shrewdly inserted
plot twists and emotional wrinkles are calculated to put your heart in your
throat and keep it there.

The movie carries off two tricky balancing acts. One is to give the story a
political context without bogging it down in essayistic debate and laborious
historical background. The other is to maintain a balanced political
perspective given the one-sided views of these all-too-human terrorists.


As reviewed by Ruthe Stein writing for the San Francisco Chronicle

What sort of person would strap on explosives, conceal them under his jacket
and catch a bus in the fervent hope of killing everyone onboard, including
himself? "Paradise Now," a compelling, tightly made political thriller set
in the West Bank, attempts an answer by turning the camera on two
Palestinian suicide bombers during what they assume to be their final 48
hours. 

The easy approach would be to present them as the embodiment of evil.
Instead the film, which unfortunately continues to be timely, takes the
riskier and more controversial course of attempting to humanize the pair by
giving them sad histories of growing up rootless.

The details of their transformation into human time bombs have an almost
documentary feel, the result of extensive research that went into the
screenplay. Hany Abu-Assad, the gifted director and co-writer (with Bero
Beyer), read Israeli official reports and transcripts of interrogations with
failed suicide bombers and also interviewed family and friends of those who
died. 

The film captures the bleakness of the West Bank and, more powerfully, shows
us lives so grim that the thought of paradise now seems enticing.


Film reviews researched and edited by Peter Haggart
* * *

Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre
508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho
208-882-4127
Sign up for this weekly email on events and movies at the Kenworthy by
logging onto our website
http://www.kenworthy.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAMELA PALMER, Volunteer
Mailto:ppalmer at moscow.com
Film and Events Committee
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

http://www.kenworthy.org
To speak with a KPAC staff member,
call (208) 882-4127
Mailto:kpac at moscow.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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