HBO's timing for Oslo is less than ideal given the recent Israeli-Palestinian fighting -- and its framing is blinkered and naïve
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The HBO film on the Oslo Peace Accords, starring Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott, features excellent acting. But the premise feels out of place in the aftermath of the recent fighting. "The idea is: If we can all relate to each other as people, maybe we can figure out solutions to our problems," says Sheila O'Malley. "If I learn about your childhood, I will be able to see you as human. This is well-intentioned—and to some degree, true—but only to some degree. The Oslo Peace Accords may have been historic, but they were widely despised and greeted with waves of protest on both sides: Edward Said referred to them as 'an instrument of Palestinian surrender, a Palestinian Versailles' (it's not hard to understand why he felt that way, considering what was conceded), and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated soon after by an Israeli extremist. And around it goes. The situation has not improved. It has deteriorated."
ALSO:
- The strength of the ensemble cannot make up for the script’s failure to place the drafting of the Oslo Accords within the greater context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Oslo is an engrossing, unfailingly lucid account of a momentous political breakthrough that interrupted a decades-long impasse
TOPICS: Oslo
