Oslo: A monument to peace

The world seems to have become insensitive to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which has lasted for decades, and the international community will act only when violence and bloodshed escalate. Perhaps it is time for another peace talks between Israel and palestine. "Oslo" released by HBO on May 29 may be the most timely and timely movie ever made. This film is based on the novel by J. T. Rogers' 2017 Tony Award adaptation of the eponymous stage play tells the story of the Oslo Accords reached through secret negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization between 1992 and 1993. While these agreements have not brought lasting peace, they remain a monument. It shows that when people come together and start talking, good things happen. It's a story that needs to be told and restated, and it's needed now more than ever.

Stills from Oslo

The news video at the end of the film "Oslo" shows former US President Bill Clinton witnessing a historic handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization President Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn. The moment of this milestone marks the first time that two rivals have acknowledged each other's legitimacy. But as the play Oslo reminded audiences when it premiered at Lincoln Center Theatre in New York in 2016, the Oslo Accords have little to do with the United States, and it was brokered by a nonpartisan Norwegian couple. This not only provides a uniquely neutral perspective for a deeper look at the issues of both sides, but also implies that conflicts cannot be imposed from the outside but must be reached by both sides themselves. Therefore, a way must be found that gives both parties space and time to get to know each other and gradually break down barriers between them in an environment free of public pressure. This is exactly what Teje Rod Larsen (Andrew Scott), director of the Fiore Foundation think tank, and his wife, Mona Yur (Ruth Wilson), as a junior official in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, bypass the diplomatic process, open up secret channels, and stay away from what the media has to offer.

Moving a play from stage to screen is challenging. Screenwriter Rogers removed nearly a third of the content from his three-hour award-winning original, which inevitably sacrificed some wonderful scenes, but the added plot made the logic of the film more fully reasonable and the audiovisual effects more fascinating. Mona, who was covered in the dust of a bomb blast, walked the streets of Gaza and witnessed the futile actions of two young men. One of them is an Israeli soldier and the other is a Palestinian civilian. The experience reinforced her drive to bring the two sides together. Frequent airport pick-ups and speeding cars on coastal roads add weight to the required covert operations. The walks and conversations on the snowy forest trails on behalf of the two sides not only eased the tense atmosphere in the room, but also created a warm feeling that drew the audience into it. Contrasting with the intensive talks was the state of Mona and Teye's relationship. In one scene, he swears a bold lie with his wife's soul; in another, she threatens to divorce diplomats if he doesn't give diplomats enough room to negotiate.

As a film that is basically an indoor, dialogue-based film, it is even more difficult for the audience to become interested in the people arguing at the conference table and their content. In his film debut, Tony Award-winning theater director Bartlette Schell did not cast characters as a beacon of interpretation of policy and justice, but rather incorporated dialogues that hinted at their individuality. The plo economist Ahmed Qurey's cunning and fickleness are dazzling, and Israeli Foreign Minister Uri Savile has some rock star flavor. The Marxist Hassan Asfort happily tasted Norwegian waffles while indignantly rejecting petty-bourgeois family construction. Sometimes they shouted, sometimes they made a lot of noise, and sometimes they burst into laughter. Both sides often go back and tear up the latest draft, slapping each other in cases of offense or anger. Mona and Teye, who are anxious to linger, are like nervous parents worried that the children's party will become a game that will be difficult to clean up. It's a movie that keeps you nervous and on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Whenever someone rushes out of the room, you can't help but gasp. Whenever an argument becomes personal, you can't help but worry. When things seem to start falling apart, you'll be discouraged again. The talks have been on the brink of collapse, but both sides agreed to keep the Americans in the dark.

In some scenes of the film, the modification of visual language is also meaningful. For example, the footage of the Israeli foreign minister pacing captures the claustrophobic atmosphere of the room; the repeated overhead shots of the delegates standing on the tiled floor highlight the meaning of confrontation with each other, and several round table shots in the tongue and sword are also quite eye-catching. As Mona flashes back to her war-torn Gaza experience, the camera slows down and the colors fade, dreaming of both personal trauma and the brutality of war. In the film's final shot, the windows are open and the empty negotiating table is bathed in soft sunlight, suggesting that old and dead nemesis also have the possibility of shaking hands and understanding each other. The occasional or exaggerated use of lighting in the film is also quite effective, and the audience can only hear their voices, but they can't see their expressions. This deliberate dramatic element shows that it doesn't matter who's talking, what's the key. This makes the very ordinary scenes in reality both cinematic and ornamental.

Israel's legal counsel argued that the Jewish state was seeking to recognize the legitimacy of its existence, while the PLO finance minister insisted that the other side accept the PLO as the official voice of the Palestinian people. The fundamental divide remains: one side thinks they are voluntarily shrinking their own land, while the other insists that they are simply returning, not giving up what once belonged to them. In order to clarify this impasse that has been difficult to crack so far, it is necessary to analyze in detail the choices and decisions of both sides, and also to find the cracks in the intertwined brocade of their respective carefully woven. Such a task is difficult to complete even in a panoramic documentary, let alone a two-hour drama film. Oslo has been criticized for a variety of reasons, such as skipping the Palestinian intifada, avoiding Israeli control of the Gaza Strip, and presenting the living conditions of Israeli soldiers, while the Palestinian teenagers killed by it have been lost. Some have even suggested that Western news coverage of the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict has tended to downplay the fact that the Israeli army has killed and injured hundreds of Palestinians, including dozens of children, as another component of a pre-set story.

However, the film's depiction of the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks is fascinating and thought-provoking. It underscores the fact that the factors leading to conflict have been further exacerbated by war, colonialism and the Holocaust. It gives hope that even the most irreconcilable situation in the world can be resolved relatively satisfactorily through negotiations; it also highlights the view that the success of the peace talks is the result of a concerted effort between the parties, not the domination of some force. This not only breaks with traditional colonialist thinking, but also illustrates everything that activism should have. It provides a subtle message to those who stay out of the matter, namely that their role is to support, facilitate and, where possible, de-escalate the situation. Overall, with no meaningful discussion of key issues, the film Oslo doesn't do much better than the play of the same name five years ago. In the film, Uri says to Ahmed: "Our people lived in the past. Let's find a way to live in the moment. "But how? Oslo doesn't give an answer.

(Original title: Oslo: A Monument to Peace)

Source: Beijing Daily

Author: Feng Xinping

Process Edit: L020

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