Review of Miral (2010) by Ryan M — 18 Aug 2011

Miral, director Julian Schnabel's incendiary Middle East drama, is bursting with contradictions. It's at once open-eyed, yet narrow, it's made with incredible skill, but still wanders at times, and it tells a story concerning Israel through the eyes of Palestinians. It's a perfectly valid way of going about things, but the drama is lost in the many stories of victimization.

The main focus is on Miral (Frieda Pinto of Slumdog Millionaire), born in 1973, but from there the film meanders all the way back to Israel's founding at the war that tore the region apart in 1967, all of it shot as a rundown of abuses suffered by Palestinians. Fast forward back to Miral, who is radicalized by the intifada in 1987, torn between her more conservative father (Alexander Siddig) and a rebel leader she fancies (Omar Metwally), which only clutters the film's attempted focus on Palestinian anger. Most interesting is how things shift when the radical leader embraces moderation. The movies then does as well. Miral is many pieces of the Palestinian experience, often brought to searing and brilliant life. But it's still a mess. I expect better of Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly), but this is no failure. Why hate on a film with real ambition?