NOMINATED for this year's Academy Award as Best Film In A Foreign Language, Hany Abu-Assad's slow-burning thriller is a provocative and unsettling portrait of two suicide bombers preparing for an attack on Tel Aviv.

In the light of recent events, Paradise Now is extremely uncomfortable viewing, holding us in a vice-like grip as the film moves towards its heart-stopping climax.

Said (Kais Nashef) and his best friend Khaled (Ali Suliman) are approached by Jamal (Amer Hlehel), an operative for an underground Palestinian organisation, who informs them that they have been chosen to deliver a decisive strike at the heart of Israel.

Both men have been waiting all their lives for this honour and spend their final day with their families, who are blissfully unaware of the mission the two men are about to undertake.

Said chooses to slip away from his handler to spend a few fleeting minutes with Suha (Lubna Azabal), a beautiful woman, whom he would ask out if he only had more time.

The next morning, the two men are driven to the edge of Nablus, where an unnamed driver will pick them up and take them to Tel Aviv.

However, the plan goes wrong, and Said and Khaled are separated, unable to defuse the explosive strapped around their bodies.

Director Abu-Assad and co-writers Bero Beyer and Pierre Hodgson adroitly distil the issues into a compelling human drama, witnessing the fears shared by Khaled and Jamal as they prepare to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The performances of the two leads are excellent and Abu-Assad sustains the tension masterfully, including a series of twists at the end that leave us holding our breath, praying for a peaceful resolution that sadly can never happen.

Damon Smith