The Theme of Conflict in the Bubble Film - Movie Review Example

The theme of conflict in the bubble film The bubble is a romantic film written by Gal Uchovsky and directed by Eytan Fox.The bubble was filmed in 2006 and released by Strand Releasing. It has four main characters; Noam, Ashraf, Yali, and Lulu.In addition, it has three minor characters; Jihad, Golan and Rana. The film depicts the story of these young people (main and minor characters) in a cosmopolitan city, Tel Aviv, in Israel. The film portrays social and political conflict as the main theme among other minor themes such as love and homosexuality. The film shows two strongly opposing sections in the communities of Palestine and Israel. Noam, Yali, Ashraf, and Lulu are the advocates of peace and reconciliation between Arab and Hebrew communities. Despite a strong strife between the two communities, Noam and Ashraf bury their ethnic differences and develop an intimate relationship. Ashraf, a Palestinian who comes from a community of militant meets Noam, a Jewish reservist and clerk at a music store and fall in love. The two put aside the political conflicts existing between their ethnic groups and become sexual partners. As members of their communities expand the ethnic gap by fighting and killing one another on the basis of ethnic background, Ashraf and Noam try to bridge the gap by advocating peaceful co-existence. Lulu and Yali are doing all they can to ensure that Ashraf is safe from other Hebrews who advocate the ethnic drift. Yali offers Ashraf a job at his café in the city and makes sure that his identity remains unknown to other Israelis. The bubble film shows how social and political conflict dominates the country of Israel and causes the division of people along the ethnical background. The film portrays Israel as a conservative religious country where there is a tense confrontation between the Palestinian and Israelis. The Israelis do not offer jobs to Palestinian due to an existing social and political strife between the two ethnic groups. When Ashraf moves in with Noam and Yali offers him a job secretly at the cafe, Ashraf tells Yali, Lulu, and Noam to call him Shimi. Ashraf changes his name to prevent being identified by Israelis in the city. Later, Ashraf escapes from the city when Lulus former boyfriend recognizes him as a Palestinian and threatens to disclose his identity to other Israelis. In addition, when the media reports that there is violence in West Bank (where Ashraf had escaped to) Noam and Lulu disguises themselves as journalists from the French Television as they went to search for Ashraf. Tel Aviv experiences intimidation and bomb killing from the two ethnic groups. Jihad, who is a Hamas leader from Palestinian ethnicity, sets a bomb in the city that injures and kills many people. Yali is among those injured by a bomb in the city; the bombing cripples Yali causing him to lose his ability to walk again. After the bombing, the tension escalates further in the country, as the military looks for those responsible for bombing the city of Tel Aviv. When the military raids the West Bank, where Palestines militants stay, a stray bullet kills Ashrafs sister. Her death devastates the leader of Hamas militant, Jihad, who promises to avenge for his newlywed bride (Fox). Ashraf shows an internal conflict by playing the role of a suicide bomber to avenge his sister. Initially, Ashraf had shown the need to reconcile the two fighting ethnic groups, Palestinians and Israelis. As a Palestinian, Ashraf falls in love with Noam, an Israeli and spends good time together despite their ethnic difference. The homosexuality of Noam and Ashraf tries to show the need for peaceful co-existence between the Israelis and Palestinians. However, when Ashrafs sister is shot dead by the military, Ashraf forgets his cordial relationship with his Israelis friends and goes to bomb Tel Aviv, the home city of Israelis. The aim of Ashraf is to avenge her sister by killing many Hebrews by bombing a social gathering like a restaurant or a club. However, when Ashraf sees Noam, Lulu, and Yali at a social gathering, inside the café, he moves to an empty street where there are fewer people and primes the explosive belt. Ashraf also shows the inner conflict by killing himself during the revenge mission; bombing himself together with Hebrew is not a good revenge. Further, Yali, Golan, Ashraf and Noam show a need that is an inner conflict by partaking homosexuality. They all acknowledge that homosexuality is against the moral and social practices, but they go ahead to become gays. Ashraf continues seeing Noam even after his sister and brother –in-law warns him against being gay. "So, that is how Jews kiss," Ashraf tells Noam after kissing during post-coital bliss. Noam also says to Ashraf, "so, that is how Arabs do it." The two enjoy being gay despite the fact that the practice is immoral in the society. The actions demonstrate a strong an inner conflict. Yali also shows the inner conflict by offering Ashraf, Palestinian a job, which is against the will of Jews. Israelis are not supposed to offer help or associate with Palestinians, but Yali offers Ashraf a job at his café. Sexual conflict is another type of conflict that is more conspicuous in the film. Yali reproaches Noam for a habit of choosing men who are unavailable and ignoring his attraction to partners who are casually aggressive. Yali is jealousy for the intimacy existing between Noam and Ashraf; Yali says that Noam is unavailable for their relationship. He chooses outside gay partners over him. After giving Ashraf a Hebrew’s name (Shimi) and hiring him as one of the workers at the restaurant, one day Yali says to Noam that “ it does not feel real” to have a Palestinian (Ashraf) living with them in the same apartments in the city of Tel Aviv. Ashraf tells her sister that he is in love with a man before her wedding ceremony, but Rona (Ashrafs sister) refuses to believe. Rona is not happy with the news, and she appears very angry with her brother. Ronas reaction to the news pertaining homosexuality devastates Ashraf because he thought his sister would be happy to hear the news. Jihad, Ronas fiancee, repudiates Ashraf when he sees him kissing Noam at West Bank. As a leader of militants, Jihad negates the homosexuality and coerces Ashraf into a straight relationship. In addition, Jihad neither tells Ashraf to marry his cousin nor does he disclose his secret of homosexuality to other Palestinians. Lulu also falls a victim of sexual conflict. Lulu does not have strong sexual partners; she dramatically falls in and out of love with more than one boyfriend. After breaking up with her former boyfriend, Lulu engages in an unstable relationship with Yali (who is gay). Yali and Lulu seems to fall in and out of love dramatically. Yali also lacks a stable relationship; he has had a sexual association with more than one partner, starting with Noam, Lulu, and Golan. The film paints Yali, Lulu and Noam as protagonists who try to put an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories. The three want the ethnic difference to come to end. They want Israelis to allow Arabs to move freely about Tel Aviv and participate in social and economic activities. Israelis should also allow Palestinians to interact with the left-wing political group and co-exist peacefully. Noam and Ashraf show a heroic interaction although they do not have a straight relationship. The two are so much in love in that they are willing to risk their lives for one another. Out of love, both have a strong need to be together; Noam worries about the well-being of Ashraf after he hears that there is violence at West Bank, Ashrafs hometown. When the two meet, they kiss at the watch of Jihad, the Hamas leader. In addition, Ashraf agrees to go back with Noam to Tel Aviv despite the recognition of his identity by some Israelis in the city. At the end of the film, Noam talks about the love that he shared with Ashraf. Noam wonders whether they ever had the opportunity to love each other and show people. He refers to the ethnic wars as stupid. The close relationship between Noam and Ashraf at first makes one almost to believe that they could inspire change to the communities Israeli and Palestinian communities as symbols of peace. However, their relationship is already doomed as the awful life of violence envelops them outside Tel Aviv city making their relationship end in tragedy. At the end of the film, the two die in a bomb situation as a result of an ethnic and political conflict (Parker n.d.). Works Cited Parker, Ryan. The Bubble: A Review. 27 January 2010. 22 December 2014. . The Bubble. Dir. Eytan Fox. Perf. Knoller Ohad, et al. 2006. Read More