Omar

OMAR is an intense thriller about violence, friendship, and occupation in the West Bank.

Omar is frustrated with the daily humiliations from Israel and decides, along with his friends Tareq and Amjad, to do something about it. They kill an Israeli soldier! Not because it aids the political struggle, but to show that they do not accept the oppression they feel. Omar is exposed, arrested, and given the choice between being released if he betrays his friends or being tortured and imprisoned. He tells the Israelis that he will help them, and to his friends that he plans an ambush on the Israelis. What follows is a tension-driven thriller where Omar is faced with impossible choices, such as whether one can betray one's friends to survive and whether one can give up the political fight to save love.

Omar is a Romeo and Juliet tale about occupation, a psychological drama about a young man's fight for a dignified life, and an intimate coming-of-age drama where the lives of three friends are changed forever. The director neither judges nor celebrates the characters for their actions. Instead, he shows that the difficult choices for young Palestinians are not principled questions but harsh realities they must deal with every day, with dramatic outcomes.

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Director

Hany Abu-Assad (b. 1961) is one of Palestine's most famous filmmakers. He is known for films like Rana's Wedding (2002), but first received his major international breakthrough with the film Paradise Now! (2005), which won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for an Oscar. Later, he made films like Omar (2013), which was also Oscar-nominated, Idol (2015), The Mountain Between Us (2017), and Huda's Saloon (2021).

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