Miral

I'm intrigued by the idea of painters as directors of narrative films. Julian Schnabel, who really doesn't appeal to me as an artist (I went to see an exhibit of his once and I just didn't get the broken plates) made a terrific film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, but his latest, Miral, is much less compelling. The first film didn't have a strong narrative, and could be centered around the visual imagery. Miral has a much heavier plot and concerns itself with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Schnabel is not up to the task.

The story is told around women who are affected by the Israeli occupation of Palestine, beginning in 1948. A woman of means (Hiram Abbass), finds refugee children in East Jerusalem and sets up a school for them, which continues to grow (and still exists today). The story then moves to Yasmine Al Massri, a high-strung woman who ends up in jail for punching a Jewish woman in the nose after the latter calls her an "Arab whore." In prison she meets another woman who was a nurse but was sentenced to life in prison after planting a bomb in a movie theater. (This sequence is very effectively shot by Schnabel, as he cuts between the faces of the movie patrons and the movie itself--Roman Polanski's Repulsion).

Al Massri ends up marrying a local businessman and supporter of Abbass', Alexander Siddig. They have a daughter, the title character. Tragedy intervenes and Siddig leaves Miral with Abbass in her school. Flash forward to when Miral is 17, and played by Frieda Pinto. She gets involved with the PLO, much to Abbass' and her father's consternation.

Though Schnabel makes some half-hearted efforts to make this even-handed, it comes down decidedly on the side of Palestinians. Those of us with long memories will pick that up with the cameo appearance of Vanessa Redgrave in the opening scenes. Israelis are, by and large, presented as thugs, with their checkpoints and brutality by the soldiers. I'm sure this is partially true, but the script, by Rula Jebreal, doesn't make much effort to present a balanced view. That's understandable, because this is her story, but I couldn't help but feel uneasy. The only portion of the film that presents Israelis as decent people is a character played by Stella Schnabel as Miral's cousin's girlfriend, who teaches Miral all about The Who and The Rolling Stones.

A better film would have had a character speak for Israeli concerns (such as their very existence is constantly threatened by being surrounded by people who would like them all dead, or at least gone). Instead the film comes off as propaganda,  a simplistic view of 5,000 years of conflict, casting the Jews as invaders and occupiers.

I also found the film sketchy at points, as if great chunks of it had been deleted. It covers forty years of history in just under two hours. I did like Pinto's performance, even if she isn't Arabic (she does resemble Jubreal a great deal).

Miral makes a so-so family drama, and a less than so-so examination of a complicated situation.