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Private

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Italy · 2004
1h 30m
Director Saverio Costanzo
Starring Lior Miller, Hend Ayoub, Tomer Russo, Areen Omari
Genre Drama

A Palestinian family is trapped inside a house commandeered by Israeli soldiers.

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What are critics saying?

25

New York Post by

Israeli soldiers are cast as the killers, while the Palestinians are the hapless bunnies. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is thus reimagined as "Bambi."

50

Village Voice by Ben Kenigsberg

Private never reconciles its conflicting impulses, and consequently, the human impact of the struggle--so powerfully explored in "Paradise Now" and "The Syrian Bride" --never acquires the emotional weight it should. The semi-absurdist closer amounts to little more than a knee-jerk declaration of hopelessness.

70

Variety by Derek Elley

Political realities are a powerful bonus to, rather than the only reason for, Private, an emotionally gripping drama.

70

L.A. Weekly by Ella Taylor

Selected as Italy's entry for best foreign film at this year's Academy Awards, Private was disqualified for not being predominantly in Italian. A pity, since this meticulously nonpartisan film, even as it makes the case for passive resistance, shows what devastating lack of appeal the strategy has for young Palestinians.

75

New York Daily News by Jack Mathews

Private, Italian director Saverio Costanzo's stunning human drama, would seem like something out of Kafka if it weren't based on real events and a relatively common fact of contemporary Palestinian life.

70

Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas

Perhaps inevitably bleak and grueling, Private is also involving and provocative -- and critical of Israeli treatment of Palestinians in an effectively understated manner.

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