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Sep 11, 2014 By Shawn Hazelett Web Exclusive

“Green Prince” is a codename used for Israel’s most prized informant, Mosab Hassan Yousef. The son of a Hamas figurehead, Yousef had long grown disenchanted with the methods employed by Hamas – namely, suicide bombings – and agreed to work for Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, where he repeatedly risks his neck on missions against top Hamas officials, some of whom include family and friends. The dangers and dilemmas he encounters are secondary to Shin Bet, who regards him as little more than a source of information. However, his Israeli handler, Gonen Ben Yitzhak, understands Yousef’s personal sacrifice. More than that, he’s probably the only person in the world with a clear understanding of Yousef’s situation, which is almost inescapable—unless someone of influence is willing to reciprocate the personal sacrifice for a former member of Hamas.

The Green Prince offers all the trappings of a story with Shakespearian proportions: loyalty at odds with humanity, betrayal, and two sworn enemies who forge an impossible friendship. Unfortunately, the friendship between Yousef and Ben Yitzhak—critical to the film’s emotional spine—is insufficiently charted, void of the building blocks on which a relationship between two people of equal but opposite origins can be founded. It’s unclear whether this is due to a lack of content (and therefore, a thin premise) or because writer/director Nadav Schirman finds greater fascination in Yousef’s missions, which ultimately become episodic and lack suspense. An Israeli-born filmmaker, Schirman should be commended for his measured approach to such a heated conflict. Equally critical of Israel and Hamas, he positions the film on a middle ground occupied by so few, resulting in a rallying cry for humanity that is unquestionably noble but would have been louder with a sample roadmap.

www.musicboxfilms.com/the-green-prince-movies-107.php

Author rating: 5.5/10