Educational Media Reviews Online

This documentary follows a young couple – Palestinian Assi and Israeli Jasmin – as they struggle to find a place to live freely. From the beginning, in April 2004 when they announce their marriage, they encounter one obstacle after another. Even viewers with little or no knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will have no trouble understanding the feelings of frustration, longing, and anger in the struggle.

With English subtitles, the film transcribes the dialogue which switches between foreign languages and English. The hand-held camera technique lends a sense of immediacy and realism to the scenes. The visuals are not as crisp as they could be, but the variety of scenes is wonderful: long shots of the beach, or hills, or from an airplane, combined with close-ups of faces.

Since Assi and Jasmin live apart much of the time, he in Palestine working as an artist and she in Berlin as a ballet dancer, a lot of back-and-forth scenes make up the movie. There are quite a few at airports, on roads, and at checkpoints, which underscore the couple's life apart. Scenes with Jasmin's parents and with Assi's large extended family with whom he lives bring forth the normal day-to-day activity and the closeness that they must eventually give up with loved ones in order to live together as a couple.

Music is used occasionally, although the sound for the most part is talk. With friends, with relatives, with bureaucrats, with lawyers, the dialogue moves the story along as they investigate all avenues to live in one of their homelands and then, eventually, their decision to move to Vienna.

This film could be used in political science or history classes discussing contemporary international events. It would also be useful as a general movie-and-discussion film on college campuses. Public libraries might also consider purchase for their general DVD collections.

The film does a fine job of capturing the emotion of this love story, which has a surprise, happy ending.

Recommended