Miral

Miral has drawn controversy for its politics, but, while its story is told from the Palestinian point-of-view, it is presented with fairness and humanity. It's still an ineffective drama, though. Written by Rula Jebreal, who penned the source novel, Miral begins with the tale of Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass), a wealthy Palestinian woman who opens a school for displaced children in East Jerusalem in 1948. Eventually, the story moves ahead to the Six Day War, and Nadia (Yasmine Al Massri), who escapes her abusive stepfather, only to end up a belly dancer. Later, Nadia marries a caring and devoted imam, Jamal (Alexander Siddig), and they have a daughter, Miral (Freida Pinto). Miral comes of age during the first Intifada uprising, and briefly flirts with radicalism. Miral's story is well worth telling, but the screenplay doesn't bring it to life. Hind and Jamal, for example, are both unimpeachably saintly, and most of the characters and their interactions are drawn in such shallow, pedantic turns. Director Julian Schnabel's uses jittery, swooping handheld camerawork, intermittently with a blurry iris effect, as though one was watching the action through a ship's porthole on rocky seas. This style might be appropriate to a narrative that takes place mostly within its main character's head (as in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), but this tale could have benefited from a more gritty, hard-edged approach.