Writers: Nadav Schirman, Mosab Hassan Yousef (memoir)
Features: Moasb Hassan Yousef, Gonen Ben Yitzhak
The son of a founding leader in the Palestinian organisation, Hamas, becomes a spy for the Israeli intelligence agency 'Shin Bet'. The film is a retelling of the book by Mosab Hassan Yousef, 'Son of Hamas', and is based on interviews him and his handler from Shin Bet, Gonen, describing their work together which lasted for ten years.
The book will be again adapted into a live action film in the future. Mosab now lives in USA after converting to Christianity. He was facing the threat of deportation due to his connection with Hamas before the release of his book. When he made into mainstream news, Gonen went to USA to help him get asylum in USA going against his organization's protocols. Film is as much about their friendship that developed over the years that they worked together. It ultimately led to the ouster of Gonen from Shin Bet. It is better to watch it as a film on how intelligence agencies operate when it comes to handling their source than as one which deals with Israeli-Palestine conflict. It doesn't get into the politics of it at all and I was reminded of Anton Corbijn's 'A Most Wanted Man' from last year which had a much bleaker ending. They manage to make a thriller out of just two people recounting their experiences. It does seem that I do have a liking for proper spy films and am not talking about shit like James Bond films or ones like 'Body of Lies'.
Overall it is a good watch but I have been kind of disappointed by the standard of documentary films that I have watched from last year. The only one that really stood out was 'Citizenfour'. 'Jodorowsky's Dune' was also great mind.
Rating: 3.5/5
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