Miral: Mediocre Work of Politics

“Miral,” the new film from writer-director Julian Schnabel, is more a work of politics than a work of art, and it’s not that interesting even as a work of politics. It presents a very basic pro-Palestinian point of view that skirts all the really tough issues that make the Israeli/Palestinian struggle so intractable. I’m not sure what value there is in over-simplifying Middle Eastern politics and making what is essentially a TV movie based on these matters.

“Miral” is put together reasonably well. Schnabel (whose previous films were “Before Night Falls” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”) appears to have decided early on to create a very simple movie, and he maintains careful focus on delivering that objective. Freida Pinto (“Slumdog Millionaire”) does an adequate job playing the eponymous lead character, who grows up mostly in an orphanage and gets involved in the “intifada” movement in the late 1980s. This of course puts her on a collision course with the Israeli Police.

An example of the film’s laughable over-simplifications concerns the 1967 Six-Day War. The war, first of all, is never explained, but the aftermath is discussed. The Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank that followed the war is presented as simple aggression on the part of Israel. There is no mention of the endless violence waged on Israel from that territory in the years leading up to the war or the use of that area as a staging ground for an invasion of Israel. I’m no pro-Israel zealot, but let’s at least be fair when critiquing their military actions. Characterizing Israel as a pure aggressor is ridiculous. It's as ridiculous as believing the Palestinians are all terrorists.

As a work of art, “Miral” is a huge disappointment. As a work of politics, it is also a letdown. But it does work as a simple drama, and there are moments of genuine emotion. Surprisingly, the most interesting passages concern the personal ordeals suffered by Miral’s mother, who killed herself when Miral was a young girl. I suspect that Schnabel the artist was drawn more to the mother's story. But Schnabel the (mediocre) politician unfortunately took the dominant role for this project.

With all the film's ordinariness, there still is something inspiring about a Jewish filmmaker trying to look at things from a pro-Palestinian perspective. Imagine a movie made in the 1980s by a white filmmaker in South Africa championing the black movement there. Even if the film were mediocre, one would be moved. In that sense there is something special about “Miral.”