I love a movie that does everything right—dialog, cinematography, acting, plot, redeeming value, relevance—and Miral is just that movie.Miral is a must-see. And for those of you with an aversion to subtitles, there are only a few, so you will be fine. Based on Rula Jebreal's novel about her own life, the movie walks us through the inception of the State of Israel and the ensuing escalation of the Palestinian conflict that followed, all through the eyes of a young girl whose life is shaped by that conflict rather than by her own goals and aspirations.I have to say something here. If someone's real life is filled with people dying, torture, and deceit, and the person telling the story is always the victim or always did the right thing in a sea of others who didn't, one has to wonder. I just don't believe her when she talks about how she behaved when she was picked up by the army. Sorry. Maybe it's not that important, but when something doesn't pass the smell test, you have to acknowledge it. Her story is a self-serving litany of justifications for her decisions, one of which cost someone their life.A recurring theme in Miral is displacement and the carnage that results from it. Miral and her mother were displaced, and her Palestinian people were displaced. We all learn from this film that displacement kills hope faster than the Israeli flag was designed after they took the land.There are many dissonant messages in the film that make it one of the best movies of the year thus far. Perhaps the most important of these is the movie's portrayal of a fabulous girl's school (which is still standing) that educates young female minds from behind a hedge of denial of events outside its walls. It's like The Secret Garden, but somehow that's believable. There can be no hope for peace in the Middle East if oases of normality can't exist amid seas of insanity.Some will say the story is all about Miral, but I think her father, Jamal, is an equally important character with much more to teach. Jamal is a forgiving man, but Miral mistakes his forgiveness for weakness and denial. She thinks he's hiding behind a God that has forsaken them, but he's not. He is choosing forgiveness and focusing on what he finds important, which is Miral herself. Everyone should have a parent like that. And we should all understand that it's our choice to forgive or fight, and that one must weigh the consequences of each option before making the choice. Alexander Siddig portrays Jamal perfectly, slowly, without much dialog but with ever so much emotion. Why don't we see him more?The story moves quickly and covers a large stretch of time, but you never feel rushed, or that you missed anything. That's hard to do when your story spans fifty years in two short hours. I never really understood the genesis of Israel, or how it came into being so quickly. It's like Los Angeles, a city that grew too fast to allow for city planning, and they have been struggling with the consequences ever since. No solutions can be implemented when you take land away from entire people to make room for their arch enemies, just band aids.I know I've said this before about other films, but this is another one of those movies that should be shown in schools, in homes, in the Knesset, and anywhere else where people are sure of their point of view about who is right and wrong in this conflict. I wonder what would happen if it were required viewing for all Palestinians and Israelis.Julian Schnabel is a wonderful director, so wonderful that no one part of the movie stands out as his. He just wove the tale, brilliantly and sensitively, and a grateful nation or two should thank him. On behalf of mine, thank you. Please go see it. Take someone with you who is sure that Israel is totally right or that Israel is totally wrong, and then go to a coffee shop and talk about it.

Miral: A Film Review for IMDb Miral Shahini was born in 1973, but she credits her education with the existence and presence of Hind Husseini, her mentor and savior, in her life. Hind Husseini opened the school on Christmas Day, 1947, when she opened Dar el Tefl for the world to see; in fact, it had visitors on its very first day. The daughter of a woman who fooled around, literally, at a dance party and gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, or so it seems, born in 1973, like I said, is a Palestinian refugee who travels between the forbidden settlements, so that she can visit her relatives (and go to school). Based on a book by "Rula Jebreal," the film is immensely entertaining, and is about the power and the value of education over the power and value of war (or peace marches, as the case may be, for Mrs. Husseini doesn't like those, either). A French, Italian, Jewish, and Israeli film, the movie is based on a peaceful collaboration between these countries' film-makers, producers, and directors, but it seems to be mostly about the Middle-East (the school is there, and it takes place there). In addition, it is about betrayal, lies, and secrecy, and about how war ruins more lives than does good: take, the scary event where Miral's friend, "Khadib," is shot by Israeli snipers and is killed on the scene. This movie also tells the compelling, and wonderful stories of a certain Fatima, aka, "the good nurse," Hind, of course, and, in the beginning of the film, Nadia, who is forced into near-prostitution as a result of her intolerance of her marriage with a creep who also shows signs of willingness to bed his own daughter. The discretion on the part of the man's wife, who allows this "near-prostitution to go on" is also notable, in the movie.

I did not know what the movie was about so when it started my first reaction was: "Oh no! not another movie on Jewish suffering!" I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this time the movie was about the Palestinian plight. Kudos to that I say, nevertheless I found the story confusing. I am a fan of Julian Schnabel's work as director, but I expected more after The Bell-jar and the Butterfly which in my book was a masterpiece. Miral (not an apt title for the subject matter) takes its time before getting to the main story and protagonist, telling first the tale of 3 other women: Her mother Nadia; Fatima the terrorist; and Hind the school master and surrogate mother to all orphans. Miral's arrival on the scene is almost an afterthought, hinted at by Nadia's vomit attack upon arriving in jail -if she is sickened by fear or by baby is not clear until much later on.I wished the director let the people speak in Arabic and add subtitles -which were used only in the beginning- it would have made for a less Anglo-centric flavored film and the written text would have allowed the audience to catch important dialog that was otherwise drowned by the soundtrack. What Fatima says to the man who later becomes Nadia's husband, for example, would have explained later events. Same for what was exchanged between Miral and the Intifada member at the funeral, important words muffled in music. Because of this and the confusing ways of past and present scenes mixing without a clear way to distinguish between them, the storyline of the movie was unclear, and so was its perception similar to walking in the dark, intuiting the outline of things but not getting the full picture. All actors were good but Hiam Abass who played Hind stood out. Freida Pinto does not look authentic, I read she is of Indian heritage, but her beauty made the distressing story more bearable, if distracting. Aside from this, it was refreshing to see a movie on this subject matter, produced and directed by major names in the movie industry. To see the Israeli seen as "bad guys" was almost shocking, what with the Jewish propaganda we get out of Hollywood all the time. The world needs to see Palestinian heroes, if nothing else to balance the way Arabs in general are portrayed in the movies. A movie worth seeing if NOT the ultimate picture on the subject.

I was amazed at how non-political this movie was. There was a great deal of controversy around it, so I was expecting a polemic. It was nothing of the kind. It portrays the childhood and adolescence of a Palestinian girl, along with stories of her mother and her school headmistress. These stories illustrate, to some degree, the Palestinian history from 1947 to 1993. But the focus is on the women's stories. I think this is a movie that will be appreciated far more by women than by men. It is poignant and respectful. Most women will find something with which to identify in this film. The cinematography is beautiful and the lead actors are compelling in their roles. The movie has been criticized as disjointed, but that's because real life does not have a formulaic dramatic arc. And sadly, there is no "conclusion" to the movie because the conflict is ongoing.