I just finished watching Paradise Now for the second time. This time was with my Dad, who described it as "a good film" after the credits starting rolling. It's classified M18 under the Singapore Board of Censors because of the sensitive theme it holds in our society.

Basically, the film illustrates the last 48 hours of two Palestinian men who live in the West Bank. They have chose to end their lives as suicide bombers in Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Many times in society we are prompted to deem these people as cold, unfeeling, inhuman individuals who don't actually have hearts, and are just tools of destruction. Politicians look at things in black and white. They see that everyone is phased under two umbrellas- "right" and "wrong". There is no in-between. Many times, we see it that way too.

But what is black and white anyway? Black is but a mixture of every other color there is. And white is the absence of color.

Nobody is white. Nobody is perfect. But nobody is black either. The truth is, everybody is in-between. There are so many colors, how can everybody only be two? A week after the terrorist attacks against London, Madrid etc. comes cover stories on these people. We look at them and dismiss them: they are not worth the attention. But does anybody consider the fact that NOBODY makes a decision to kill a bunch of strangers in just a snap? There is always a road.

Why did these two young man choose to give up their whole lives for a mere operation? You'd be shallow to just brush it off; think they're naive. How on earth will you expect people to react when you torment, tyrannize, intimidate them? They are human too, and vengeance breeds in the flesh of every human.

After watched the film for the first time, I remember thinking. This is odd, Said was the one who backed out first. Khaled was the adamant one. But in the end, it was Said who detonated the bomb. The second time, I probed myself with that question. Then I realized: religion, philosophy are but the kerosene to start the flame. The match still comes from themselves.

Some of us have inner demons, and maybe because there was this avenue Said took the plunge.

"The politicians want to see it as black and white, good and evil, and art wants to see it as a human thing.

-Hany Abu-Assad
Director Paradise Now.