'Bethlehem' is powerful because of the violence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it depicts
'Bethlehem' stars Tsahi Halevi and Shadi Mar'i.
'Bethlehem' stars Shadi Mar'i (l.) and Tsahi Halevi (r.).
Adopt Films
鈥淏ethlehem鈥� is the latest entry in a burgeoning genre about reluctant Palestinian double agents in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (鈥淥mar鈥� is the most recent). Israeli director Yuval Adler and Palestinian journalist and co-screenwriter Ali Wakad have teamed up to make a movie that is, in some ways, slick and agile enough to be called 鈥淐SI: Bethlehem.鈥� Razi (Tsahi Halevi) is an Israeli Secret Service agent who enlists the teenage Sanfur (Shadi Mar鈥檌) in providing information leading to the Israeli-engineered death of Sanfur鈥檚 militant brother Ibrahim (Hisham Suliman).
The movie doesn鈥檛 delve especially deeply into the psychology of double-agentry, and the shifting viewpoints between Israelis and Palestinians flattens the drama instead of broadening it. 鈥淏ethlehem鈥� remains a fairly powerful experience because so much of what we see is inflamed by a violence that seems to have no end. Grade: B (Unrated.)