DVD Reviews

Miral – DVD Review

By June L. Jul 18, 2011, 14:51 GMT

From Academy Award® nominated director Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), and based on the acclaimed semi-autobiographical novel, Miral is the story of a Palestinian girl coming of age amidst the war zone of the Israeli-Arab conflict -- unflinchingly told through the perspective of Miral (Freida Pinto, Slumdog Millionaire) herself. Following the death of her troubled mother, Miral\'s father (Alexander Siddig) is forced to entrust her to the orphanage ...more

Author Rula Jebreal’s screenplay based on her autobiographical novel is a fascinating political and human drama centering on people whose lives are affected by the 1948 Arab Israeli conflict. 

Directed by Julian Schnabel, the film illuminates the problems of living with constant political unrest and fear in a war zone. 

But rather than political figures, the characters in this story are Miral a young Palestinian girl and the women who touched her life. 

Throughout the film there is the ideal of workable peace, and it is fostered in Miral and others by the true life heroine Hind al-Husseini.

The film begins in a documentary style, but Miral in voice over brings the action to a human level rather than an overall perspective. 

She tells the audience that the story, her story, really begins in 1947 when Hind al-Husseini (portrayed in the film by Hiam Abbass) finding 55 orphans wandering in the street, displays admirable compassion by taking them to her home. 

Starting with the 55 children, Hind al-Husseini established the Dar Al-Tifel Institute which became a refuge of peace and education to hundreds of displaced children and is still in operation today. 

Before we see Miral, audiences view the lives of Fatima (who becomes Miral’s mother) and Rose (a nurse whose compassion earned her four life sentences in prison). 

Their stories chronicle aspects of women’s lives as a result of war, and are a gloomy reminder that in conflicts, there are far more casualties than those that occur on the front lines.  In 1978 Miral is seven years old, motherless and is much beloved by her father Jamal (Alexander Siddig).

The turmoil in Jerusalem is escalating and Jamal realizes that his daughter needs the protection and the education that his friend Hind can offer at her school.  Miral (Freida Pinto) grows up at the school, under the guidance and care of Hind, always hearing from her teacher and mentor that she must not do anything that will compromise the school, to concentrate on her education and that will show her the way to help her people. 

At 17 she is tempted to become more of an activist, thinking that she is doing something progressive, not realizing that her group of friends (outside the school) are actually involved in terrorist activities. 

There are some tough times for Miral to live through on a personal level as well as within the grip of her warring nation, and she questions her training as well as the principles that Hind and her father regard as a foundation for living.

The Miral DVD is presented on a single disc with a running time of 106 minutes.  The special features truly enhance the film.  The Making of Miral introduces the audience to author Rula Jebreal and actress Frieda Pinto, and gives insight to both the emotional and production elements of the story. 

Actress Vanessa Redgrave and actor William DeFoe who also have roles in the film as friends of Hind add their impressions of this work to make a rich blend of information for the serious viewer. 

The film is rated PG-13, and while giving a truthful picture of the oppressing fear of living with war on one’s doorstep, it is not so horrific as to turn audiences away.  Bad things happen, and people innocent of creating the conflict often pay the price. 

We as human beings can be happy that Miral survived and became Rula giving hope through telling her story, that peace will one day come to her world.

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