First of all, I'd just like to mention that I am a Secular American Jew who may make Aliyah in the future.
Anyway, I actually just registered for IMDb being that I thought this movie was really worth reviewing here and that I think all my friends should see it, anyway, my review.
If you go into watching Miral expecting to see a plot with clear structure, intro to climax and conclusion, your expectations will not be met. However, if you go into Miral in order to learn more about the Arab-Israeli conflict and follow it from an honest, Palestinian perspective, you'll love this movie to death.
Although most people say that this movie is following the lives of two different Palestinian women, you're really only following one--Miral, the other woman doesn't really develop as a character throughout the film. Miral during the film goes through metamorphosis of perspective of sorts as she goes from being a revolutionary against the Israelis to realizing the goodness on both sides and believing in the possibility for peace.
But besides that, the events going around Miral paint a perfect picture of the conflict, as it is, nothing hidden. For example, in the film, you'll see a "Peace Protest" that turned violent that Miral participated in, as well mention of Jewish Settlements within the region of Judea and Samaria/the West Bank. You will also see tremendous hate on both sides, such as a Palestinian who in her blind hate became a suicide bomber killing innocent people she didn't know in a movie theater, and an Israeli father who "thinks all Palestinians are terrorists".
All in all, this is an absolutely fantastic film and I highly recommend it, but cautiously. As this film does not show much, if any of a separate Israeli perspective (Like most of the media involving the Israeli-Arab conflict, this film only shows one side, Arab or Israeli, and not the other), it is therefore somewhat biased in presentation by definition. The viewer should be careful and take heed of all events in the film as they are, simply, and through Miral's perspective while viewing for maximum enjoyment and understanding of the events depicted.
Anyway, I actually just registered for IMDb being that I thought this movie was really worth reviewing here and that I think all my friends should see it, anyway, my review.
If you go into watching Miral expecting to see a plot with clear structure, intro to climax and conclusion, your expectations will not be met. However, if you go into Miral in order to learn more about the Arab-Israeli conflict and follow it from an honest, Palestinian perspective, you'll love this movie to death.
Although most people say that this movie is following the lives of two different Palestinian women, you're really only following one--Miral, the other woman doesn't really develop as a character throughout the film. Miral during the film goes through metamorphosis of perspective of sorts as she goes from being a revolutionary against the Israelis to realizing the goodness on both sides and believing in the possibility for peace.
But besides that, the events going around Miral paint a perfect picture of the conflict, as it is, nothing hidden. For example, in the film, you'll see a "Peace Protest" that turned violent that Miral participated in, as well mention of Jewish Settlements within the region of Judea and Samaria/the West Bank. You will also see tremendous hate on both sides, such as a Palestinian who in her blind hate became a suicide bomber killing innocent people she didn't know in a movie theater, and an Israeli father who "thinks all Palestinians are terrorists".
All in all, this is an absolutely fantastic film and I highly recommend it, but cautiously. As this film does not show much, if any of a separate Israeli perspective (Like most of the media involving the Israeli-Arab conflict, this film only shows one side, Arab or Israeli, and not the other), it is therefore somewhat biased in presentation by definition. The viewer should be careful and take heed of all events in the film as they are, simply, and through Miral's perspective while viewing for maximum enjoyment and understanding of the events depicted.