Babel and Paradise Now

February 09, 2007 | 02:22 PM
Babel and Paradise Now
Babel is a work of absolute genius, but still stands, in my view, the second best film of last year. The best film is a unquestioningly a Palestinian film called 'Paradise Now', which was not even recognized by any of the awards announced. That is why awards such as the Oscars will always be suspect..

So if you get a chance, see Paradise Now. It is a film about two friends that sign up to go on a suicide bomb attack inside Isreal, and the events that follow. It is riveting, not in the forced 'hollywoodized' way of say United 93, but in an absolutely real and raw way. And the central male lead is far far better than any other performance of the year.

Which does nto detract from the greatness of Babel. On whatever level. However, when I meet the Director of the film, I will ask him what the relavence of the Japanese story was to the two other stories. The japanese story in itself was really engrossing and emotional, but other than a plot device of the Rifle, how were the themes explored in the Moroccon and the Mexican stories related to the Japanese ones ?

Any points of view on this ?

Shekhar