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Omar

Omar

Movie · 2013 · 8 people

Hany Abu-Assad wrote and directed Omar, a Palestinian drama of 2013 with thriller elements, and shot all of it in Palestine. Abu-Assad's fifth feature, it became his second film after Paradise Now (2005) to reach the Oscars, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards on behalf of Palestine. It competed in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, winning the Special Jury Prize, and took Best Feature Film at the 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Omar (Adam Bakri) is a shy, sensitive baker. He repeatedly crosses the separation wall to see Nadia (Leem Lubany), the woman he loves, and so gets drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Israeli security forces. When he is detained on suspicion of preparing a major attack on Israel, everything he believes and knows collapses. His friends, fighting for freedom, begin to pay for their mistakes. Waleed Zuaiter plays Rami, Samer Bisharat Amjad and Eyad Hourani Tarek, with Tarik Kopty and Anna Maria Hawa also in the cast.

The eight-week shoot took place in Nazareth, Nablus and Beit She'an. Waleed Zuaiter and David Gerson produced it, through ZBros. It was screened at the United Nations in New York on 1 May 2014 and opened in Turkey on 7 March 2014.

DirectorHany Abu-Assad
Production companyZBros

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Anna Maria Hawa Anna Maria Hawa Actor Tarik Kopty Tarik Kopty Actor · died at 77 Adam Bakri Waleed Zuaiter Leem Lubany Yousef Sweid Doraid Liddawi Samer Bisharat

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Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Abu-Assad's smartest choice is to tell a political drama with the tools of the thriller. The cat-and-mouse game keeps the viewer inside the story, while the wall itself stops being a location and becomes an obstacle that shapes the structure of the narrative. Shooting entirely in Palestine, in real places, gives that tension an almost documentary hardness. My reservation lies in the second half: the relationships that tighten after the detention sometimes run too mechanically, and the characters' decisions seem shaped less by dramatic necessity than by what the plot needs next. Still, this is assured direction that earns its Special Jury Prize at Cannes.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

If 'political drama' makes you expect a slow film, Omar may surprise you; it builds tension early and rarely lets go. Every crossing of the wall is a risk in itself, and the cat-and-mouse game with the security forces keeps you on alert. The tension here comes less from big set pieces than from a sense of being cornered. The pace dips a little when the love story takes over, but those pauses never last long.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Omar's strength is that it shows the separation wall not as a slogan but as a reality woven into everyday life. A baker who has to cross a border every time he wants to see the woman he loves shows how, in a land divided by a wall, even the most ordinary wishes turn into risks. Rather than presenting the young men fighting for freedom as romantic heroes, the film puts the price of their mistakes up front and centres on the tension between friendship, loyalty and suspicion. Its Oscar nomination on behalf of Palestine and its screening at the United Nations also show the film's ambition to carry its own society's story onto an international stage.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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