"I am not an Israeli-Arab... I am a Palestinian. I have an Israeli passport but it does not make me an Israeli. As long as Israel continues to be a Jewish state, I cannot be an Israeli as I am not a Jew. I am not against the Jews being in Palestine... but I cannot agree with a state that makes a native people foreigners in their own land." Director Hany Abu-Assad′s words contain the kernel of a debate that has raged for decades. In Paradise Now, two childhood friends who are recruited to carry out a suicide bombing must consider their own convictions and destinies. We are left to ask questions of why anyone would agree to such action, and what brings a person to that place. Abu-Assad walks a fine line between sympathizing with people who kill and understanding what motivates someone to such desperate violence. The ′how and the why is rarely asked in cinema, and Abu-Assad has made a film that attempts to answer those questions. He has made visible the invisible.