Omar (Bakri), Amjad (Bisharat) and Tarek (Hoorani) are three Palestinian childhood friends making up a cell who have dedicated their lives to the cause. A plan to kill an Israeli soldier – Tarek’s idea, Omar steals the car, Amjad shoots - is successful when a soldier is indeed gunned down. But Omar is arrested for the crime and, tricked into an admission by his sneaky interrogator (Waleed Zuaiter), is informed that Nadia (Lubany), Tarek’s sister and Omar’s secret love, will be in danger unless he collaborates and gives Tarek up…
he first Hany Abu-Assad film to make it to these shores since 2005’s Oscar nominated and similarly-themed Paradise Now (the English language action thriller The Courier starring Mickey Rourke and Jeffery Dean Morgan hasn’t seen the light of day), Omar, nominated for an Academy gong too, is a neat drama but it’s always a hair’s breadth away from falling apart. That’s down to Bakri’s uneven performance and the director’s insistence of emotional distance from the events.
he foot chases through the maze-like streets may not be Greengrass-esque but they are exciting and there’s genuine chemistry between Bakri (fares better in the romantic scenes than elsewhere) and Lubany but the deliberately slack grip Abu-Assad has on proceedings is discarded in the run in, as the director gets belatedly involved. Regretfully, Omar becomes politically one-sided and the late emergence of a love triangle is melodramatic and tacked on.