UNIVERSITY OF

PETROLEUM & ENERGY STUDIES

SCHOOL OF LAW

B.A.- LL.B. (HONS.)

SEMESTER VI

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2021-22 SESSION: JAN - MAY,

2022

MOVIE REVIEW

FOR

ALTERNATE DISPUTE RESOLUTION

(CLCC 3026)

Under the Supervision of: Ms. Gunjan Saxena

NAME: HARSHUL DAIYA

SAP NO: 500077316

 ROLL NO: R450219154

MOVIE REVIEW FOR OSLO

“We will facilitate and facilitate only.”

Just before their “guests” arrive at Norway’s Booregaard Manor, Mona Juul (Ruth Wilson)
forces her husband Terje Rd-Larsen (Andrew Scott) to repeat these lines. This isn’t your
typical cocktail party. The visitors represent both sides of one of the most vexing conflicts of
the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Without official government consent, the Norwegian
couple established secret back lines, avoiding the conventional diplomatic process. The
couple hopes to “promote” a discussion between Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization under the auspices of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (where Mona
works) and the Fafo Foundation (Terje’s think tank) (then exiled in Tunis). Mona and Terje
will not interfere with the procedure. They will only “facilitate”. The 1993 Oslo Peace
Accords, which are the subject of HBO’s “Oslo”, were the outcome of all of this.

There is no diplomatic fanfare or security detail when the guests arrive. Terje drives everyone
to their destination in a rented automobile. Two academics from the University of Haifa, Yair
Hirschfeld (Doval’e Glickman) and Ron Pundak (Rotem Keinan), and Ahmed Qurei (Salim
Dau), the PLO Minister of Finance, and his liaison Hassan Asfour, convene in the beautiful
foyer (Waleed Zuaiter). The atmosphere is bleak and untrustworthy. Terje makes a lovely
speech about how everyone will be “friends” here. He’s ordered cases of whiskey to “ease”
the friend-making process, which appears to succeed initially, albeit with a few odd snags.
When Marxist Hassan haughtily remarks, “The petty bourgeois idea of family does not
interest me,” a little dialogue about their childhoods is diverted. So, let’s get this party
started! Mona and Terje stand by the doorway, nervously watching their children’s slumber
party devolve into a risqué game of spin-the-bottle.
The Israeli professors are replaced by more serious “players” higher up the chain of
command, including Uri Savir (Jeff Wilbusch), Director General of the Israeli Foreign
Ministry, who stalks off the plane dressed as Neo from “The Matrix”, and Joel Singer (Igal
Naor), legal advisor to the Israeli government, after the first round of talks. Yasser Arafat,
who is in exile, is frequently referenced but seldom seen. Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon
Peres (Sasson Gabay) is included. The discussions are continually on the point of breaking
down. Everyone believes that “the Americans” should be kept in the dark.

“Oslo”, directed by Bartlett Sher, is based on J.T. Rogers’ 2017 Tony Award-winning play
(which he also adapted), and is based on the show’s off-Broadway and Broadway
productions. Although Sher has a long and illustrious theatrical resume, this is his first film as
a director (he won a Tony for his direction of the celebrated 2008 revival of South Pacific,
and has been nominated for many things, including Oslo). The repeated overhead shots of the
many “delegates” standing on the tiled floor, looking off at one another, and a couple of
round-the-table images during explosive debates are two wonderful visual embellishments.
The picture never abandons its theatrical roots, and there’s a visceral sense of how much
better it would have worked onstage in front of a live audience. An ecstatic Uri Savir compels
a befuddled Mona to dance the tango with him at one point, and the scene is so bizarre that it
practically screams “this worked much better onstage” in bright neon.

Mona’s experiences in war-torn Gaza are a particularly low point, both physically
(everything is slowed down and dreamlike, with washed-out colours, symbolising her
trauma) and thematically (everything is slowed down and dreamy, with washed-out colours,
symbolising her trauma). While what she witnessed during the “war” led her to use her
position of power at the Ministry to kickstart the “peace” process, these flashbacks mostly
focus on her terrified expression. As if the film wants us to participate in Mona “healing” her
personal scars by seeing “peace in the Middle East” or whatever, this emphasises her
experience in extremely unpleasant ways. It’s a narrow line, and the film teeters on it
whenever the relationship is the focal focus.
The acting is consistently good, with Salim Dau standing out and Wilbusch a close second.
These are two excellent actors who portray ferocious, passionate guys who are both
intelligent and weary by the struggle. They are worthy adversaries and extremely deadly
allies. Both actors are engrossing to watch.

With current affairs as they are, the timing of “Oslo” is less than perfect. The framing is also
skewed and naive. The notion is that if we can all relate to each other as humans, we might be
able to solve our issues together. I’ll be able to see you as a human if I learn about your
childhood. This is well-intentioned, and it is true to some extent, but only to some extent. The
Oslo Peace Accords were historic, but they were widely despised and met with waves of
protest on both sides: Edward Said referred to them as “an instrument of Palestinian
surrender, a Palestinian Versailles” (and it’s easy to see why, given what was conceded), and
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist shortly after. It goes
around and around. The problem hasn’t gotten any better. It has gotten worse.

At one point, Uri says to Ahmed, “Our peoples live in the past. Let us find a way to live in
the present.”