Suicide bomb film opens Dubai film festival
From Andrew Hammond

DUBAI—Hollywood and Arab stars converged on the Gulf Arab city of Dubai on Sunday for a festival of world film that opened with a movie about why Palestinians carry out suicide bombings. The cast of “Paradise Now” were feted at the opening ceremony along with U.S. box-office pulls such as Morgan Freeman and Matrix star Laurence Fishburne, Arab stars Adel Imam and Leila Elwi and French-Algerian rai singer Faudel.
Now in its second year, the Dubai International Film Festival has set itself the ambitious goal of being a “cultural bridge” between the West and the Arab world. “It’s an extremely important subject for us in the Middle East,” said Egyptian comedy actor Hany Ramzy. “Our role in Arab cinema is to do films that give the West an idea of what we are all about.”
“Paradise Now,” which has been well-received in the United States and Israel, suggests the random violence of suicide bombings arises from Israeli occupation and not from just Islamic fundamentalism. Ali Suliman, who plays one of two youths who become suicide bombers, said he hoped the film would change attitudes in the United States, Israel’s key ally, who the Arab world accuses of being biased against the Palestinians.
“That’s what we hope for and that’s what’s happening,” Suliman said. The festival allows new filmmakers to try out movies on ethnically mixed audiences in this cosmopolitan city, which often presents itself as a Manhattan of the Middle East. Fishburne, who trod the red carpet with one arm in a sling, seemed taken with the city’s mix of desert, tropics and modern architecture in the religiously conservative Gulf region. “I wouldn’t miss being here for the world,” he told reporters. Controversial film “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World,” directed by U.S. comedian Albert Brooks, gets its world premiere at the festival on Thursday.
The film pokes fun at American ignorance of the Muslim world, but its eye-catching title caused Sony to pass up the chance to distribute it, Brooks has said, fearing reprisals from Muslims in the West or the Islamic world. Brooks plays a comedian sent by the U.S. State Department to India and Pakistan to find out what makes Muslims laugh, so everyone can get along better in the post-9/11 world.