Conflicted

Miral (2010)

Based on real events this film comes from the novel of the same name, stars Freida Pinto and is directed by Julian Schnabel. A young Palestinian girl is raised at an orphanage during the 1980s and becomes involved in the conflict with Israel.

Touchy subjects ahoy here (Israel/Palenstine and fact/fiction) but I think the major problem with the film comes from the fact that the narrative wanders far too much in the first half before settling on the character of Miral. There are some interesting stories in here but it really would help if they had picked one to focus on rather than the muddle we get here which is a shame as the film has some nice cinematography. While the film does have some hope for the future in terms of the next generation being more likely to solve the problems of the region it does take a fairly one sided view of the problems and does not really attempt to explore complex issues properly.

2/5