The second foreign film of last weekend was Bethlehem—the offering from the Israeli director on the subject of Palestinian informants. I wonder had I switched the order in which I saw the films whether I would have liked this one more. Or less. On reflection, I suspect it wouldn’t have mattered that much.
While Bethlehem is not a bad movie (I’d easily call it good), it simply is not on the level of Omar (which was excellent). It felt flat. It felt lacking. It felt organized just a bit too much—-in a way that did not deliver the suspense that had been promised by the trailer. The acting was fine. And the stories were similarly tragic. But the layers of stories that peeled away in Omar are not found in the telling of the story in Bethlehem.
I’m learning more about how the Academy narrows the foreign films as the nominees, and on seeing these two so closely together, I understand more as well.