BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Moritz R This documentary about the massacre of the Israelian army in Jenin lets eye-witnesses from the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin have their say. Their testimonies offer a shocking insight into the constant war in the middle-east region, that all-too-often is covered up by the western media. The Israelian authorities did not only refuse access of journalists, they also banned the film. Delegates of the Knesset publicly called the people to boycott the theater plays of the director of this film, who is a Palestinian living in Israel. In my understanding of freedom of opinion every side must have the right to advance an opinion, so everybody can decide what to think of it.

pmacattack84 The best documentaries are those that shed a whole new light on a situation or examine it in a new and unique way. Right from the start, however, it seems that Jenin Jenin has a far different agenda. Instead of being a rich and complex examination of a difficult, tragic conflict, it is a repetitive and monotonous exercise in preaching to the choir.In order to establish credibility in a documentary, we need to see something of what is being described. Instead of footage from the event, we get mainly indictments from people who are supposedly eyewitnesses to the carnage, and are asked to take it all on faith. Some of these interviews are powerful and painful to watch, but others require leaps of faith for a rational observer, and that is something a documentary should never ask of its viewers. In fact, a good chunk of the movie is an interview with its own producer, making his own pontifications on the events of Jenin. Imagine Michael Moore making a film where he just talked about his own views and cited no sources, and you'll get an idea of what most of this is like.These observations quickly become predictable, as do the rest of the interviews and the movie. The 54 minutes seem interminable as we hear story after unvaried story about the pain and suffering that the horrible Zionist conspirators inflicted on the helpless Palestinians. About 10 minutes of this footage would be good to use in a far better film that examines the conflict in much greater depth and with more meaning, but the rest should have found the cutting room floor.Jenin Jenin is apparently not meant to be viewed from a critical perspective, and because of the nature of the events it documents it is almost beyond criticism. For Israeli sympathizers, it is no more than a hateful piece of Hamas-funded propaganda. For Palestinian sympathizers, it is a scathing indictment of a corrupt and evil nation run amok. With such a polarity in play, there is almost no way to discuss a film like this rationally. But then, the movie apparently isn't meant to be seen that way. It is a call for the viewers to rise up and bash Israel, and while it may be effective for those who are already completely sold on it and just want a justification, for others it just comes off as propagandistic.For an aspiring journalist like myself, Jenin Jenin lacks the meat of true reporting, and is little more than an inflammation of previously existing hatreds. If you're looking for a deeper understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, look elsewhere. Not recommended.

Jonathan Fain The movie is based on testimonies of Arabs who live in Jenin and have experienced, in what they claim: A Massacre. Set in he ruins of the battle that had been there, a picture of miserable life is painted by Mohammed Bakri, using provocative editing, almost like a holocaust film.As a documentary, the movie fails, as its plot is twisted out of reality, therefore, it is regarded as a personal film and not as a Documentary.As a film, the movie is quite repetitive and boring. Same interviewees repeating on describing their misery, rather than using visuals of some action to demonstrate what happened in Jenin. I would recommend to pass on this film, as it is a waste of time. Watching the world news can help you understand the condition of the Palastinians better than this film.4 out of 10.

illiterati In 2002, April 3rd through 12th, the population OF Jenin, a Palestinian refugee camp and home to some 14 000 people living under strict military curfew, was exposed to a merciless assault by Israeli soldiers, tanks, armored bulldozers, and helicopters. Much of the camp was shot and blown to hell, while an area the size of several football fields in the centre of town was completely leveled, purportedly the gravesite of many hundreds of people. That is the clear aftermath. The exact details of the occupation are still debated, accounts varying from "the Palestinians asked for it" (Israel) to claims of generally bloodthirsty behavior on the part of Israeli soldiers (Palestinians, Red Cross workers, and just about any outsider who's visited the site). "Jenin Jenin" is a documentary lending voice to Jenin's survivors wishing to participate in that debate (which ended up costing it's director his life).Through "Jenin Jenin", you'll take a stroll though the rubble. You'll listen to shattered people give accounts of brutal murder of their kin that are so horrid, you'll have trouble believing them because you cannot wrap your mind around such carnage being perpetrated by mere men. Except that at one point, you'll see footage apparently shot during the occupation -- footage of captives lined up on the ground and run down by an armoured vehicle. You'll see a young girl with a disturbing cold gaze, and come to understand just how deep her hate for Israel already runs. Ten years old at most, she pledges to do all she can to destroy Israeli lives.In the end, you'll either declare it all bulls**t, believe the Israeli claims that whatever happened, the Palestinians asked for it, and I'll call you a flaming moron, or you'll want to do something about it but find you can't, your government won't, and you'll hate the world.