The Green Prince (2014)

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This documentary has one of those life-is-stranger-than-fiction premises. The son of one of the founders of the terrorist Hamas organization was successfully turned into an informant for the Israeli secret services, the Shin Bet. The story of Hassan Yousef would have remained one of the best guarded secrets of Israeli history had he not voluntarily exposed himself as a mole while living in the US after retiring as an Israeli asset. The story that gradually unfolds throughout the Green Prince is full of unexpected twists and intense political intrigue and family drama that one day needs to be turned into a full length feature film. But for now, we have this very competent documentary. Much of the film is a protracted interview with the Hasan with little camera movement, and simple lighting. This may sound like an overlong CNN special report, but the interview has such intensity, and Hassan narrates episodes of his life with such expressiveness and honesty, that the chronicle itself is gripping. It is interspersed with scenes that combine drone, night vision and CCTV like imagery, real news footage and some recreated acted moments, all heightening rather than replacing the narration. The storytelling and editing is tight and economical. Instead of taking a merely journalistic approach, it opts for a character study that slowly unfolds, turning a spy thriller plot into a story of betrayal and redemption that goes beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What the story does particularly well is show how gradually Hasan distanced himself from his father politically without ever disowning him. He simultaneously undermined him tactically and tried to avoid any threat to his life. At the same time, his "handler" Gonen Ben Yitzhak became a father- like figure. This bonding could be dismissed as no more than a predictable "Stockholm syndrome" denouement but for the fact that it was reciprocated by Gonen, who ultimately must also make a decision between advancing his career and protecting Hassan. The material never feels preachy or sanctimonious and it refuses to turn characters, even the Hamas founders, into cartoonish villains. A truly great documentarian like Werner Herzog or Joshua Oppenheimer might have taken a few more liberties with the material, and perhaps an even more cinematic approach, but this still deserves to be watched. In my case, the story lingered in my mind for many days after I had seen it.

Mosab's story is a poignant one, and the documentary certainly does the relationship which developed between Mosab and Gonen justice, as do the actors who portray them in the interview scenes. However, the choice of episodic structuring regarding Mosab's story was not, in my opinion, justified, and it gave the plot a confused, hit-and-miss vibe. Some of the episodes were completely devoid of a key element which would justify their presence, and in the end it made the plot seem more piecemeal than it was. Naturally, when telling a true story, one cannot expect the same plot twists seen in Hollywood, but there are better ways to approach the construction of a real-life story than the one chosen in the making of this documentary. It's worth watching, but more out of credit to Mosab than the documentary.

80% of the scenes in this movie are just straight on facial shots of two people telling a story. That is not interesting or creative film making. The rest looks like stock news footage. No interviews with other people, the affected families, people on the street - nothing. A film maker should bring a story to life, give it context, and make it exciting to watch. Having a camera on someone's face and getting them to talk for 90 minutes is not film making. If this was produced by a film student, I would give them an F. Too bad. It's an interesting idea, but told in the most dull, boring way imaginable. This is definitely one of the worst films I have seen in the last 5 years. It is so bad, it is almost unbelievable.

I had very high expectations. I mean, what a story? The son of a Hamas leader turned informant was openly talking about his involvement with the Shin Bet! Waw. Unfortunately, The Green Prince didn't deliver. Instead of understanding the psychology of an informant, the reasons for turning against his family so easily, we are left with a recounting of events, that is incomplete in providing us with a full picture of such a political and personal move. Mosab, the informant, gives the impression to be highly disturbed, in need of attention and recognition, and ready to grab any opportunity that would give him such comfort. The way the character was presented offered no depth, or thought-provoking arguments. The handler, Gonen, is the hero, the one who went against the shin-bet, or what he called "his family" to save the Palestinian, his "friend". No further explanation as to why he felt the urge to go against the rules for the informant, and the film-makers were largely satisfied with the "it was my duty" answer, instead of digging further into his personality. Not a complete fail, but feels like a partial recounting of events, that does not offer any emotional or contextual depth which would have made it one of the year's most astounding story told.