JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Jacomedi A Surprisingly Unforgettable Movie!

Adam Foidart "The Attack" is a real emotional roller coaster in the sense that one second you'll be filled with sadness while the next you'll be furious beyond words and then you'll be so tense you won't be feeling anything at all except for fear. Before I get started talking about this film, I will tell you that this one absolutely blew me away, but I had real trouble finding more information about it because this foreign film still doesn't have a page on Wikipedia. I implore all of you out there to seek it out, and if you can, contribute to writing the article about it. I am going to be on the lookout for a DVD/Blu-ray copy of my own so that I can do my part as well. Back to the movie. It's a brilliant, thought-provoking film that you should take the time to watch. The film is about Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman), an Israeli Palestinian surgeon who is on top of the world. He has just received a prestigious award for his work at the hospital; he has a loving, beautiful wife and many Jewish friends. It seems like despite the odds that a Palestinian in Israel would normally be facing, everything is going perfectly. His life is shattered however when he learns of a suicide bombing in a restaurant. 19 people are dead, including his wife Sihem (Reymonde Amsellem). Worst of all, the police believe his wife is responsible for the attack that left 11 children dead and all of the evidence points towards this conclusion as well. Amin is convinced that this is a mistake. His wife was supposed to be out of the city visiting her family and if she had been up to such a sinister plot, he would have known... wouldn't he?This film is an emotional roller coaster. The subject of the film is an poignant one to begin with. The idea that someone so close to you might be responsible for such a heinous crime... right away the emotions start boiling up. Fear that it might be true. Sadness that your loved one and so many are gone in such a senseless act of terrorism. Anger that if it is true, that you could have been deceived, or anger that people would dare to insinuate such behavior from someone you trusted. With the police's conclusions, Amin's life is turned upside down, and the emotions keep rising and churning. His friends turn their backs against him, the police heckle and torment him (not in ways that are particularly wrong, but in ways that will make you frustrated as it becomes obvious that our protagonist knows nothing). As you watch the film, looking for clues as to what really happened; you'll draw your own conclusions. Myself, I became infuriated whenever I saw flashbacks of Amin and Sihem together. It felt like she had been lying to him every day for 15 years of marriage, only to access the public's trust because of his prestigious position as a top-notch surgeon. At the same time, I was hoping that everything was just a big mistake.There is also a heavy thriller element to the film. I'd divide this into two parts. The first is that You don't know how our main character is going to be in the end. Because he rejects the conclusions the police come up with, he decides to do some investigating on his own... and it brings him to some very dangerous places. I like to describe these kinds of thrillers as movies where you have to apply large amounts of deodorant before going in because they will literally make you sweat out of nervousness. I don't want to say too much because there are some devastating revelations in the film, not necessarily about Amin's wife, but about the world that Israelis and Palestinians (and by extent, the whole world) lives in. Another element that I really liked was that the film portrays the consequences of terrorist acts with startling accuracy. I've already mentioned the fact that Amin becomes mostly ostracized by the people around him but there's more to it than that. The pain, the anger, the questions that rise from the actions are all dealt with with complete frankness in the film. It gave me this whole new light on a subject that I really hadn't given too much thought. The racism that's displayed in the film is heartbreaking and yet deep down, you know that what you are seeing is just a glimpse at something that is even more extreme in real life.The brilliant thing about "The Attack" is that it's a profoundly emotional story, but there's a whole lot more to it. It's also a brilliant thriller and a film with a powerful message. The movie never really spells it out for you but by spending the 1hr and 42 minutes with this character the message becomes clear. I don't want to spoil it because it really is something you need to see to understand but it affected me profoundly and left me reconsidering a lot of my preconceived thoughts about Israel and Palestine, as well as terrorism in general. The performances are very strong, the script and story are very well done and it is likely going to be an Oscar contender come the end of the year. For the sheer effect it had on my emotions, I was easily able to overlook any flaws (and even then, there were only minor ones). For all of the moments the movie gets right and for all of the light that it shines on a very real issue, it earns itself a high recommendation from me. (Original language with subtitles on the big screen, September 5, 2013)

robindecker The medium line is often difficult to walk. To me "the attack" is about a man trying to walk this line of truth without falling on any side of hatred and narrow minded feelings of bigotism or revenge. Thus the theme of this movie is central to our time.It shows religious fanaticism with a human side, not to undermine it, not to excuse it; but to show us it's true origins...between a desperate sense of meaning for one's one life, communitarian reverence of heroism, but also those moment of doubt that are well depicted in the movie (ex! last calling scene).If, as the Doctor says,"those things are beyond us ", it just really leaves us with the question of how to put them behind. This being said, the plot is halting a bit. The last scene, about departure and sadness, also fails to capture the movies core. Thus good, but not parsimonious and focused enough to make it the great masterpiece it could rightfully have had a claim to.

Howard Schumann Based on a novel by Yasmina Khadra, Lebanese director Ziad Douiere's The Attack is about a man without a country. Unlike Philip Nolan in Edward Everett Hale's classic novella who has been exiled from his country forever, however, Dr. Amin Jafaari (Ali Suliman), a respected Israeli Arab doctor, never had a country to begin with. The film, about a man whose life is turned upside down in the course of a single moment, is a gripping suspense thriller, an intimate love story, a poignant personal drama, and a powerful political statement. What it adds up to is superior entertainment. Unfortunately, the film has been banned by the Arab League for the crime of filming in Israel, limiting its potential to reach a bigger audience.The film opens with Dr. Jafaari delivering his acceptance speech at a prestigious medical conference where he has been honored as the first Arab ever to receive an important medical award. Oddly, his wife Siham (Reymond Amselem) is visiting relatives in Nazareth and is not with him to celebrate the apex of his career. Before going on stage, he receives a call from Siham but tells her that he cannot talk and will call her later. That is the last time that he will ever hear her voice. The next day, while at the hospital, Amin hears a loud explosion and knows from experience that a suicide bombing has taken place and will bring many injured and dying victims to the hospital.Dr. Jafaari, who has always treated both Arabs and Israelis, works feverishly to save as many lives as possible, even though a Jewish victim refuses to be treated by an Arab and spits in his face. Amin's world of safety and respect is torn apart when he learns that his wife may be the suicide bomber responsible for the death of 17 people including 11 children. Arrested and mercilessly grilled by a relentless Israel Intelligence officer (Uri Gavriel), he is told that the bomber has been positively identified by forensic evidence as his wife but he is in denial. It is only after he receives a letter from Siham in which she tells him not to hate her that he becomes convinced of the impossible.The letter is mailed from Nablus, a Palestinian city on the West Bank, but Amin withholds the information from his friend Raveed (Dvir Benedek), a high-ranked police officer. Provided sanctuary by Kim Yehuda (Evgenia Dodina), a Russian colleague, Amin is distraught by the realization that his wife of fifteen years had a secret life that she never shared with him. Mirroring Denis Villeneuve's 2010 film Incendies, he travels to Nablus at great personal risk to trace the roots of Siham's involvement, questioning family and friends to find answers. As Amin seeks out those responsible, he is told by his nephew Adel (Karim Saleh) who was deeply involved, "Something snapped in her head," and by Sheik Marwan (Ramzi Makdessi) that he has no business there and to return to Tel Aviv before he brings the Israeli Intelligence down on his people (why Israeli intelligence did not follow him to Nablus is not explained).An Arab leader in the Christian church tells him, "We're not Islamists and we're not fundamentalists, either. We are only the children of a ravaged, despised people, fighting with whatever means we can to recover our homeland and our dignity," and adds, "I never met your wife," the priest declares, "I wish I had." When Amin learns that Sahim is considered a hero and a martyr with her picture posted all over the city, he begins to feel trapped between his loyalty to the Arab cause and to his Israeli colleagues who opened so many doors for him and his wife. Visiting the rubble of Jenin, a Palestinian refugee camp that was bombed by the Israelis, he starts to sense the anger behind his wife's radicalization.Doueiri presents a balanced picture of the feelings on both sides, and The Attack is not a propaganda film. Although it is about the seemingly impassable political divide that separates the Israeli and Arab worlds, the film is basically a look at the human cost of the conflict. A sensitive and poetic story of the love between two people shown in flashbacks, the film asks the question – can we ever really know another person, even those we have been intimate with for many years? Can we ever know what goes on in the deepest layer of their being, how they "sense" the world? Can we even know ourselves, who we really are? For Amin, who must put the pieces of his life back together, there are many questions, but few answers, only emotional scars that will last a lifetime.

samkan Having said as much in my comment's title, as a film THE ATTACK is almost perfectly done. To say the it never drags for a second is understating it's compelling drama and story telling. To say it's artfully shot, scripted and directed becomes almost unappreciated and taken for granted in light of the movies' other attributes. To say the actors are magnificent makes one wonder how come many viewers have probably never seen any of them perform before. So intriguing and intense is the work that captivating suspense is almost a by-product. Putting all of the above together would make an Oscar-worthy film if the subject matter was aliens or teen love. But the subject matter is the contemporary Middle East tragedy. Such roughly parallels the lives of the USA's baby-boom generation and tends to become invisible by, ironically, the groaning decades of conflicts, bombings and hatred blurring into episodes with interchangeable parts. For my 17 year old son sitting next to me, I truly hope THE ATTACK served as a primer on the horror and tragedy of the Middle East today. Certainly the film must instantly be recognized as a must- see not just about the Israel-Palestinian conflict but religious and cultural dogma in general. Presently the film sits in my mind for many reasons, one being as a twisted bookend to EXODUS, which I first watched almost a half-century ago. If you're a serious film buff, don't miss this work!