Nationality and Identity in Middle Eastern Cinema

Cinema plays a significant role in communicating on matters that affect society. Chiefly,
cinema is a crucial medium in driving social awareness on issues that plague communities.
Middle Eastern cinema, particularly those made in Israel and Palestine focus on the struggle
between the two nations and the political differences that drive the conflict. A subtle reference is
usually made of the human elements in this fight, and how the conflicts affect them. One area
that is focused upon the film touches on nationality and identity in the face of conflict. As a
result of the differences between these two nations, individuality is seen to suffer as people are
subjected to the general will of their state. In effect, they have no voice and are unable to
separate themselves from the collective will. The movies The Syrian Bride and Paradise Now
examine the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even more important, it looks at the subtle ways in
which the conflict affects the people in the warring region. The struggle between the two nations
has led to a loss of personal identity as people submit to a nationalistic agenda.
The Syrian Bride reveals the struggles faced by regular people as a result of the Arab-
Israeli conflict. The story follows a bride who comes from a Druze family that has settled in
Majdal Shams, a Druze village in Golan Heights near the Israeli- Syrian border. The girl is set to
marry her cousin who is an actor in Syria, and whom she is yet to meet. Since the wedding is
cross-border, official permission has to be sought, and the resulting conflict is what drives the

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movie (Holden). Through the ensuing events, the film tackles issues that touch on the political
unrest, and the effect it has on the lives of the persons involved. Also, the film recounts the
patriarchal nature of the society and feminism issues that emerge in a well-balanced manner.
Paradise Now, on the other hand, presents a darker portrayal of the conflict. Two young
Palestinian friends, Said and Khaled, are selected to undertake a mission in Tel Aviv, Israel. The
film follows the men as they make the preparations for their martyrdom (IMDB). In Israel, the
mission goes wrong, and the childhood friends are separated. During the separation, their will
and belief in their mission are tested. Khaled, the more eager of the two, sets aside his personal
feelings and questions the efficacy of his martyrdom. Said, on the other hand, reaffirms his
decision and goes through with the bombing despite attempts by Suha, his love interest, to
convince him that there are more practical ways to go about the struggle against Israeli
occupation of their homeland.
Family identity and honor trumps personal identity. The individual will of persons living
in the region have been subjugated to the demands their families place on them. The society
views a family as the sum of the individual actions of each of its members. In Syrian Bride, for
example, Hammed has the respect of the community since he is a political militant. While he has
been in prison for many years for his actions and is under the watchful eye of Israeli security, he
is nonetheless respected. His son Hattem went against expectation and married a foreigner, a fact
that his father and his community will not forgive. Since he broke tradition when he married a
Russian doctor, Hammed is unwilling to forgive him and is even cold towards his daughter-in-
law and grandson, despite the fact he has not seen them for eight years. Noting the ill-treatment,
Hammed’s wife Evelyna bemoans their coming, to which Hammed remarks “How long can one

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hide? Enough!” Hammed’s exile has made him capable of defining his identity away from
societal expectations.
Family identity also plays a crucial role in Paradise Now. Family honor is tied to the
actions of the members. Any action carried out by a member of the family that goes against the
societal expectation impinges the family honor and casts a blot on the family name. Khaled feels
that his martyrdom will bring his family honor. More than that, he hopes to avenge the family
honor since he recalls, and not too fondly, his father’s humiliating beating by Israeli soldiers. The
act grants cause for his anger at the occupation despite the fact that his father, the actual victim
of the beating evinces no such emotions. Unlike most martyrs, Said is driven by his religion and
the quest to bring back “honor” lost by his family as a result of his father being an informer and
collaborator with their enemies, the Israelis (Burgoyne 9). Said is so angry at his father that he
almost blows himself up on his father’s grave as a result of the resentment he harbors against
him. His anger is due in large part to the fact that he feels his father betrayed his people, the
Palestinians. Even when his mother tells him that whatever his father did was for the sake of the
family, Said believes collaboration with the Israelis to be a betrayal. Despite not knowing his
father’s motivation, Said still feels that he is “already dead” since he is the son of a traitor . In
going through with the bombing, he loses his identity the respect of the two people he loves the
most, his mother and Suha.
The nationalistic agenda trumps individual will. Personal conflicts drive the conflict in
the two movies. All the same, the interpersonal frictions bear no comparison to the conflicts
between the nations and the bigger role this plays in shaping identity. In the film Syrian Bride,
Mona and her family have stayed at their home even though the region has been under Israeli
occupation for a long time. Despite the fact that Syria claims the lands and has refused to

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recognize Israeli claim (Biskupski 49), a Syrian border official refuses to accept Mona’s passport
because it has an Israeli stamp. A Red Cross official, Jeanne, has to play the go-between so that
she can solve the impasse (Holden). The dramatization lends credence to the observation that
nationalistic ideals or collective will sometimes trumps what may appear to be common sense
and the measures adopted are usually hypocrite (Almog 964). The film also brings into sharp
focus how the conflict comes to bear on Mona’s marriage. By choosing to marry across the
border, she loses her identity and can never get back to see her family. She fears, “And what if
we don’t get along? I won’t be able to come back here.” Her father Hammed has dedicated
himself to the nationalist agenda and consequently has spent more time in prison than with his
family. In his view, his sacrifices for his country form a big part of who he is. Hammed is unable
to understand why his eldest son Hattem will not make a similar sacrifice.
The role of nationality in determining identity is a central theme of Paradise Now. While
the film may understate the occupation, recounting the transformation of the characters as a more
personal journey, the influence the national agenda plays in this transformation is evident. Most
of the indications of conflict in the film take place off camera. Suha is seen crossing an internal
checkpoint, and Khaled’s military handler requests to stay the night because the Israeli army had
closed his road home. These are among the events that drive a broad sense of dissatisfaction
between the two nations and form the primary basis for the struggle the two martyrs face.
Khaled, who was the more steadfast of the two, changes his mind upon reflecting on the words
of Suha. Suha maintained that armed conflict would not work since that the bombing would only
drive more conflict and retaliatory strikes. While Said might appear as being the strong minded
one of the two, more accurate assessment points to the fact that he merely followed the trends
around his community. At some point, Said remarks that he would not detonate a bomb in a bus

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with a baby. When the bus he is targeting turns out to have many soldiers, Said goes through
with the mission despite the presence of a baby on board. In the end, he goes against what he
believes for what is the presumed impact his actions will have on the national cause.
Female members of the community have agency over their actions and do not derive their
identity from their male counterparts. Female identity in either film is not tied to what the men in
their lives say it is. A perfect example of this in Syrian Bride is Amal, Mona’s sister. Amal
enrages her male chauvinist of a husband Amin by frequently wearing pants. This is in stark
contrast to traditional expectations. Moreover, she has just gained admission into Haifa
University where she means to study social work. She advises her daughter not to succumb to
familial pressures. She is also portrayed as being an agent of action when she plays the pacifier
between her father and brother, and when she approaches the police chief and tries to convince
him to let her father accompany Mona to the border even though this would violate his parole.
Mona’s mother, Hammed’s wife, also pushes the theme of female agency and control over their
actions. While she is a more traditional woman than her daughter, she is nonetheless portrayed as
strong despite her silent demeanor. When the director chooses to highlight her greeting of her
daughter-in-law and grandson, it underlines the fact that she stands up for what she believes in.
The act of embracing her eldest son’s family is in direct contrast to the behavior of her husband
(Harris 92). Also, she has no problem defending her daughter in law when other women start to
criticize her.
Female identity in Paradise Now is also independent of male influence. Said’s mother
feels no compulsion to redeem the family name following her husband’s actions. She recognizes
the importance of his actions and believes that they were for the benefit of the family. Despite
the societal pressure, she maintains this stance and feels no need for her husband’s past actions

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driving her future activities. Said’s mother tries to pass on her beliefs to her son, but she is not
able to. The guilt associated with his father’s betrayal wins Said over. Suha is another example of
a female agent in the film. She does not believe in suicide bombing being a solution to the
problem of Israeli occupation. Suha tries to convince her love interest Said not to carry on with
the bombing, but ultimately, she too fails. Her belief and decision to pursue non-violent ways of
addressing the conflict are particularly interesting since her father was a famed leader of the
struggle. Suha has one hope, “Eventually, everything will get better.”
In conclusion, the two films highlight the struggle between the Israelis and the
Palestinians and the toll it takes on the inhabitants of the two nations. The pursuit of nationalistic
ideals has eclipsed individual interests to such a point that personal identity has to pay heed to
the collective will of the community. From the films, it becomes clear that family honor is tied to
the individual acts of the members. Even more revealing, family identity is tied to the reputation
associated with its name, and this trumps individual identity. The national ideals in turn also take
precedence over any personal sentiment, and as such, a member of the community have to
submit to the said ideals. The only notable exception in the film is found in the portrayal of
women as agents fully capable of directing themselves and driving their fates.

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Works Cited

Almog, Shulamit. “Justice: Law and Film in Israel.” Journal ofLaw & the Arts 296: 3077180.
Biskupski, Michael Konrad. “Nationality Undefined: The Druze in the Middle Eastern Political
Discourse.” Crucial problems of international relations through the eyes of young
scholars. (2010): 46-56.
Burgoyne, Robert. “Embodiment In The War Film: Paradise Now And The Hurt Locker”.
Journal of War & Culture Studies 5.1 (2012): 7-19. Web.
Harris, Rachel S. “Parallel Lives: Palestinian, Druze, and Jewish Women in Recent Israeli
Cinema on the Conflict: Free Zone, Syrian Bride, and Lemon Tree.” Shofar: An
Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 32.1 (2013): 79-102.
Holden, Stephen. “The Thing She Carried: A Bride’s Passport To No Man’s Land”. Nytimes.com.
N.p., 2005. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
IMDB,. “Paradise Now (2005)”. IMDb. N.p., 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.