11:14 & Paradise Now

Rented the above-named movies and managed to watch them over the past three days.

11:14 is a dark comedy which is narrated in the style of Momento and Crash combined. I had a great shock when watching the opening sequence in the darkness of my room, volume up on my earphones - you've been warned! It was rather interesting in how the stories were all intertwined but lacked the class that momento & crash had (I loved those two movies!).

Paradise Now was rather different - it spoke of the last 48 hours of two childhood friends who have decided to become martyrs by setting a bomb off to kill as many Israeli soldiers as possible. In a sense, it gave me a slight glimpse of the Palestinian perspective, untainted by Western lenses. A particular line stuck me in that Said lamented how the Israelis could be at the same time, the occupier (to the Palestinians) and the victim (to most of the world) at the same time; he argued he should then be the victim but at the same time, the murderer. What scares me is the dichotomous thinking that one may take to resolve matters and our selection bias in quoting certain religious documents to justify our actions (shouldn't it be the other way rd?)
Maybe what was disappointing for me was that the story which was built up in such great detail lacked a climax. I found the ending good though, and through those dogged eyes, I won't pretend that I can fathom their reasoning, but I can at least say I can see where they're coming from.

On another note, work this week has been horrible for many trivial matters. Yesterday was the worst day thus far; today was better but group left me feeling quite down. There's so much to do. Will reflect and write out my thoughts tomorrow. For now, I rest easier in the belief that I'm a much stronger person than I was. And this will see me through.

Ciao.