Oppression breeds paranoia. Such is the cycle of mistrust in “Omar,” the new film from Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad (“Paradise Now”), which opens in New York and Los Angeles on February 21. Every day Omar (Adam Bakri), a baker by day and revolutionary by night, avoids bullets as he climbs over a separation wall to visit his girlfriend, Nadja (Leem Lubany), and close friends Tarek (Eyad Hourani) and Amjad (Samer Bisharat). After Omar is arrested following the death of an Israeli soldier, the group of friends begins to splinter apart as they all suspect the others of working for the enemy. A tense, spirited thriller, “Omar” twists and turns, spiraling out of control toward its final, startling climax.
In a recent conversation, ARTINFO spoke with Abu-Assad about the movie, its real-life and film inspirations, and how increased visibility in the West will affect his filmmaking in the future.
Do you view “Omar” as a political film?
Partly yes, mainly not. I think mainly I see it as a tragic love story in a kind-of action-thriller. It’s a different action-thriller.
Does it bother or surprise you that people immediately focus on the political elements in the film?
No. I tried to do a movie that would survive the conflict. You don’t want the movie to die with the conflict. Every filmmaker wants to make a film that will stay in history and will be seen after 30 years, and still can work. This is why I think, and history can prove if this is true or not, but the film is bigger than the conflict. It’s really a movie about love, friendship, and trust, and how if there is no trust this will affect friendship and love. But, sure, the decor is Palestine, and people want to talk about it. I have no problem at all talking about it.
Looking at it as a genre film, what were you looking at for inspiration?
First of all, I love the thriller genre. I find it one of the most interesting genres because it lets you live for a while with one question: Who’s the killer? Who’s behind me? Who’s the traitor? [Laughs] I think there are three traditions of thriller. The Americans have a different kind of thriller from the French and the Egyptians. I was exposed to all three of them. From the American side, I was inspired by “No Way Out” [1987] and “The Firm” [1993]. From the French side, it was Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Cercle Rouge” [1969] and “Le Samouraï” [1967]. From Egypt, it was the filmmaker Henry Barakat. I tried to give a human side to “Omar,” like the Egyptian thrillers, a mystique like the French, and make it dynamic like an American thriller.
You mentioned the breakdown of trust that is central to the film. What I found interesting about “Omar” is that it shows how that lack of trust breeds paranoia, which spreads like a virus.
Paranoia, or the feeling that governments give to their citizens — we’re watching you — is a very old trick. They don’t want you to commit the crime. The cheapest trick is to make you paranoid, to make you feel that your neighbor can spy on you, your brother can spy on you. The new trick is to put cameras everywhere. To let you feel that this device [points to his laptop] can spy on you. This is very important to every government in the world, the west and the east. Now, in countries where there is political oppression — like Palestine — it was more important not just to prohibit you to commit a crime, but to prohibit you to think differently, to challenge the ideas, the ideology. For sure, we live as Palestinians constantly in a paranoia situation. I lived in this situation. When I was doing “Paradise Now” I was thinking they were spying on me. Now I think it was paranoia. With “Omar,” it was based on a story of a friend of mine who was pressured by the secret service to work with them; for the ending, it was something I read in the newspapers. All these elements — my own experiences, the experiences of my friends, things I read, things I heard about — I put together to tell the story.
“Omar” is your second film to be nominated for an Academy Award. How do you think this commercial exposure in the West will affect your future films? Are you afraid of being sucked into the Hollywood machine?
When I was nominated the first time, for “Paradise Now,” I thought things would be easier. But they weren't. The more you are successful the more pressure is on you not to experiment. I think the more people are expecting for you the more you can fail, and this is a great pressure. This will not give you the feeling of freedom. I prefer to be less successful and have more freedom.
Will you continue to make films in Palestine?
I have a project in United States, a Dutch project, and a Palestinian project. I’m developing my own movies; nobody is going to stop them, they’re dependent on me.
