VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

DrDVine To begin with: this is a very good movie. This is at least how I felt while watching it. It will satisfy you in multiple ways because it works on multiple layer. The one the was most present to me is the critical abstraction from everyday life in an occupied region. In conceptual an visual dense shots it deals with interpersonal communication under constant pressure. Later on the view is opened to the political dimension of interchange between the two (or one and a half) states. At the same time you will get emotionally involved with several person and there very own way of individual reception of the situation that eventually will lead to resistance. Interwoven with this is a symbolic discourse sometimes philosophic sometimes mere ironic, forcing the audience to think, to make there mind up on what they are seeing. This all is refined with a dark, omnipresent but deeply human humour. For me it worked.9 out of 10 and a strong recommendation to see it for all those who love cinema that keeps one thinking.

raymond-15 It is a difficult film to analyze. There are so many disconnected episodes. If the scenes are meant to be humorous, they are so subtle the humour escapes me. I am more aware of a feeling of frustration..of inactivity..of not being able to get things done. Not being an Arab or a Jew, I possibly see things differently...perhaps there is a funny side to senseless activities such as building a concrete wall and then smashing it down when it is solid.Greeting people in a friendly manner as you drive down a street and calling them the most abominable names under your breath is a form of humour I suppose...especially for the person involved. As for dumping garbage on a neighbour's property and then being upset when he chucks it back might be considered quirky humour.There is very little dialogue in this film, but much is made of the sound effects...the shoveling of wet concrete, the rattle of empty bottles. the sudden cessation of barking dogs. There is one character who says little but when he speaks he uses the number six in all his sentences. An interesting phenomenon for a psychiatrist but hardly hilarious.There is one scene I find more interesting, almost funny in fact. It concerns a red inflated party balloon with the head of Arafat printed on it. It floats about above the rooftops and is suddenly spied by soldiers at the checkpoint. They are so absorbed in the correct procedure to be followed that two lovers in a car go undetected through the checkpoint. This surely must be a strong case of divine intervention.There are a few interesting episodes with a degree of originality but equally there are some boring ones too when the characters remain static for far too long. If a sense of humour is required to provide a resolution of the long standing difficult Israeli-Palestinian relationship, I am afraid this film is not the one to do it.

kvala_530 This was a strange movie. When it came out in the theatres I never saw it. I had heard good things about it though so when I saw it on DVD at the rental store, I thought it would be a sure bet. But boy, were we surprised.I agree with some others here that it's hard to describe the movie. I also thought it was way too slow, and it would have worked as a short movie, not a 1h40' one. And laugh? Not once. I didn't think it was funny at all. Strange, yes, funny, no! To me the movie was a bit like a dance, modern ballet. As that, it could have been interesting, but I'm not sure it was interesting as a movie. Then, I had expected a movie that was subtle in depicting the Isreali-Palestinian conflict, some political correctness and some evidence of understanding 'the other side'. However, there was little of that! It was very pro-palestinian in not a very nuanced way.All in all, I think the idea was interesting but it was too long, and nothing happened in the beginning for a long long time. It was simply boring! ***** out of 10.

dangerbirdny Never have I seen a film with so much potential fizzle so steadily, like an inflated (Arafat) balloon with a slow leak. While some individual scenes (e.g. snake) resonated well, the rest of the movie descended into the mire of symbolic paradody for its own sake. And who wants to watch that? The main problem with the film was the unbounded satire. All the characters (with the possible exception of the filmmaker himself) are so ridiculous, that one doubts whether the movie has anything important to say about anything real at all. Yeah, yeah, we know how 'silly' the whole 'situation' is. But do we really need a cast of evil, clownish Israelis and a whole lot of short-sightend, self-depreciating, Palestinian simpletons (again with the exception of the filmmaker and his erstwhile heroine) to tell us this? Satirical stereotyping we have enough of; sophisticated art that actually has something to say is in much shorter supply. And still is.