Bethlehem (2013) - Yuval Adler

Sanfur, the younger brother of Ibrahim, a highly wanted Palestian militant, has been working as an informant for Razi, an Israeli Secret Service officer for several years.  Razi is determined to capture Ibrahim, recruiting Sanfur when he was just 15 years old, investing in young Sanfur and developing an intimate relationship that could be described as fatherly.  Sanfur, who has never felt wanted to desired by anyone in his family, thrives on this relationship but when the Israeli Secret surface discovers how involved Sanfur actually is in his brothers activities, Razi finds himself accused of crossing the line, setting off a chain of events that threatens to destroy their relationship completely.  Yuval Adler's Bethlehem is an intelligent and engaging film that captures the Palenstine-Israel conflict in a way which few films ever seem to reach.  Through it's young and undesired protagonist, Sanfur, Bethlehem exposes the deep-seeded hatred between the two sides which could easily be described as nonsensical.  We see how this hatred is so strong that everything including family and friends comes secondary to the "cause".  Sanfur is an impressionable young man who just wants to be loved but in a world where there is so much hate, he finds himself on a path of destruction, unable to be truly free to make his own decisions.  Yuval Adler's Bethlehem features a strong script, stellar performances from its two leads but most importantly it captures this conflict better than most films I've seen.

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