another way of looking at things

I was going to do my bit and blog some crap about how I've never figured out how girls can go to a hairdresser and carry on a running conversation that encompasses everything from life in the corporate world to staying away from sharks while scuba diving.

Well yes I suppose I'd be eavesdropping.

Instead I find myself put in an extremely sombre and contemplative mood as a result of just having watched Paradise Now. In a nutshell, it chronicles the last 48 hours of two Palestinians who find out that they've been selected to carry out a mission in Tel Aviv. I can't say I wholly agree with everything being put forth in the film but one thing that really struck me is how we always seem to think we can understand where these people are coming from. We've seen so many Osama videos on al-Jazeera many of us just see them as the ravings of an old tired man with not much to hold on to. We dismiss the martyrdom speeches of suicide bombers as the ravings of mad, irrational men. And yet many of these people are products of circumstances not so much unimaginable as completely alien to us. It was really poignant to see the disparity between Israel and Palestine. All that seperated bustling, tree-lined streets and sandy beaches from bombed out buildings, scrapyards and dusty unpaved roads was a metal fence topped with hurricane wire. Whats more, while the movie was being filmed, a car just down the street was brought under missile attack from Israeli helicopter gunships and one of their own crew was kidnapped by a Palestinian group. Putting yourself in their shoes is one thing, being born in them is quite another.

Oh wow look I'm writing a movie review. I have to acknowledge though that this is obviously a screenplay very heavily weighted towards the Palestinian side but at the very least it gives the outsider an idea of what things look like from the inside. Anybody know of any good films about the Israeli side of things? Like say from the perspective of one those conscript soldiers?