Sadly Over-hyped

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Miral: A Film Review for IMDb Miral Shahini was born in 1973, but she credits her education with the existence and presence of Hind Husseini, her mentor and savior, in her life. Hind Husseini opened the school on Christmas Day, 1947, when she opened Dar el Tefl for the world to see; in fact, it had visitors on its very first day. The daughter of a woman who fooled around, literally, at a dance party and gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, or so it seems, born in 1973, like I said, is a Palestinian refugee who travels between the forbidden settlements, so that she can visit her relatives (and go to school). Based on a book by "Rula Jebreal," the film is immensely entertaining, and is about the power and the value of education over the power and value of war (or peace marches, as the case may be, for Mrs. Husseini doesn't like those, either). A French, Italian, Jewish, and Israeli film, the movie is based on a peaceful collaboration between these countries' film-makers, producers, and directors, but it seems to be mostly about the Middle-East (the school is there, and it takes place there). In addition, it is about betrayal, lies, and secrecy, and about how war ruins more lives than does good: take, the scary event where Miral's friend, "Khadib," is shot by Israeli snipers and is killed on the scene. This movie also tells the compelling, and wonderful stories of a certain Fatima, aka, "the good nurse," Hind, of course, and, in the beginning of the film, Nadia, who is forced into near-prostitution as a result of her intolerance of her marriage with a creep who also shows signs of willingness to bed his own daughter. The discretion on the part of the man's wife, who allows this "near-prostitution to go on" is also notable, in the movie.

Miral is the true story of the founding of an orphanage in Jerusalem in 1948 during the Arab-Israeli war. Hind Husseini came across fifty five kids living in the streets and took them home for food and shelter. Six months later, she had two thousand children to look after. Jumping forward to 1978, a five year old girl, Miral, whose mother has died, is sent there to live by her father. At fifteen, she is sent to teach at a refugee camp and sees first hand the suffering of the Palestinians. She meets a militant, Hani who tries to convince her of the need for a militaristic solution to the conflict. Her mentor, Hind Husseini believes that education is the key to their people's long term survival. Of course, in the end, no easy answer is provided. Freida Pinto is too distractingly beautiful as Miral, but she gives a good performance as the title character and the film is well worth a viewing.

On a recent visit to New York about two weeks ago, I happened upon the opportunity to watch the movie "Miral", followed by a Q&A session with director Julian Schnabel ("Diving Bell and the Butterfly", one of my top 10 movies of the last decade), and with the writer of the screenplay and the memoir upon which the movie was based, Israeli Palestinian Rula Jebreal. Jebreal's book is also named "Miral"; the movie and the book are the story of her youthful experiences growing up a Palestinian in Jerusalem, as well as stories about her mother and about a remarkable woman--named Hind Hussein--who started an orphanage and school there in the aftermath of the chaos around the creation of the Israeli state in 1947. Rula Jebreal was "Miral", a character named after a flower that grows by the side of the road in that region, and she grew up in the orphanage, attending the school, after the suicide of her mother (I believe it was the early '70's). Filmed in a variety of great locations in Israel and the West Bank, the movie shows the misery and strife of military occupation from the point of view of Palestinians. Rula/Miral has the status of being an Israeli citizen, as her ancestors never left, and finds her identity as a Palestinian as a teenager. Miss Hind, the towering figure of the orphanage/school for some 40 years from the time she founded it, provides hope for the young girls there and does her best to protect them from the dangers of the intifada (uprising). At the story's end, she arranges for Miral to go to Italy to attend university, then dies, a local hero.Rula's experiences include an infatuation with a young intifada leader who first supports the Al Fatah (PLO) position, then runs afoul of them and is killed as an accused traitor; she is taken by the Israeli authorities, interrogated, then blindfolded, bound, and beaten; her Israeli citizenship saved her from more prolonged imprisonment. Still, her experiences are not nearly as harsh as those the film recounts of her mother, who was abused and degraded, falsely imprisoned by the Israelis, and afterwards could not live with herself. Miral's "father" (the parentage was shown not to be biological) is one of the few positive male characters, a complicated character who was a devout Muslim, loyal to Miral's mother despite her infidelity, and a loving father, yet one who gives up custody of his daughter to the orphanage. Beyond the range of the movie's story, Rula Jebreal became a journalist in Italy (as she said, "the first 'black' TV presenter there"). She spoke passionately at the Q&A session of her desire to raise awareness in the world of the plight of the Palestinians, though affirming her love of the area and acknowledging that she loves Israel as well. One thing she does not accept, and of which her life is testimony, is the Zionist notion that Israel is a Jewish state; though she came to have Jewish friends and appreciate their culture (some of which is shown in the movie), she wants a unitary state for all who live there. The film is deeply affecting, though perhaps not as much as Schnabel's "Diving Bell". Frieda Pinto, the (South Asian) female lead of the smash hit 2008 movie "Slumdog Millionaire", is a bit of a controversial choice for the difficult role of Miral, but I will say that she brings to it something like the beauty which I witnessed that evening from Rula herself. Her father was played by an actor, Alexander Siddig, who seemed very familiar but I could not place: turns out he was a regular, Dr. Bashir, on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (not a great recommendation, I know, but his performance here was sympathetic and dignified). The other two key roles, both very challenging to portray, were those of Hind Hussein and of Miral's mother Nadia, played by Palestinian actresses, Hiam Abbass and Yasmine El Masri, respectively. Willem Dafoe and Vanessa Redgrave both lent their presence to the movie, though their roles are relatively small and peripheral to the story. Schnabel spoke of the difficulty in getting official permissions to film in many locations, but also of the cooperation and passionate support for his effort that he sometimes found, and of the beauty of the region. He is known primarily as a painter, and is the son of prominent Jewish leaders, but has taken a courageous, independent political stance with this effort. He has run into some resistance from the Hollywood community, not too surprising considering the subject matter; he didn't need their help to make the film, but he will need it (and will not get it) to get broad enough distribution for him and Rula to accomplish their aim of raising political awareness. They may have to settle for the satisfaction of telling a compelling story beautifully, as both their political aims and commercial success will no doubt lie beyond their capability.

Run, don't walk, to see this movie. If you miss it while it is in the theaters, put it in your Netflix queue. My wife and I see a lot of movies, independent and mainstream and this is one of the best. Yesterday we saw a mainstream movie, Hanna, which was a major disappointment, except for the excellent acting of Saoirse Ronan. I gave it a 5 because the story was so terrible and I didn't have any emotional involvement concerning what happened to Hanna. We generally don't go to two movies, two days in a row, but I was so disappointed in Hanna and have been interested in possibly seeing Miral since I heard Rula Jebreal on NPR's Tell Me More. She wrote the novel and the screenplay the movie was based on. I was surprised that she received such a chilly reception on the show, so I remembered to check out the movie online.On METACRITIC, which contains reviews by major critics, there were 17 reviews; 3 positive, 12 mixed and 2 negative. Overall it was given a 45 out of 100 which means generally mixed reviews and near the low end of that scale. Keep in mind that Hanna got a 64 which means generally favorable reviews. I read a number of the critic's reviews of Miral as I often do before seeing a movie I also read all of the six reviews available at that time on IMDb. There were only five usable as one was written by a person who, in my opinion, had an agenda and, based on his review, had not seen the movie.Having consulted METACRITIC and IMDb, I was convinced that my wife and I might like this movie, but would probably not rate it above a 6 or 7 out of ten after we saw it. I always keep in mind that there are movies with overwhelming favorable reviews that I have hated, including The Diving Bell and The Butterfly which had the same director, Julian Schnabel, as this movie. Lost in Translation is also in that category.My wife and I came to this movie without prejudice for one side or the other. We were just looking for a well made movie that would entertain us. We were so pleasantly surprised. The acting was excellent, the story involving, and we were quite tense in the last third of the movie. Unlike Hanna, we really cared what happen to Miral.I agree with Spencergo, this movie should be seen by a wider audience, but I know it won't. The reason that this review is so important to me is most people will skip this movie because of the mixed reviews, and they shouldn't. Unfortunately, many independent films, like Rabbit Hole last year, get missed. I sincerely hope you give this movie a try if you can find it at your local independent theater.