THE GREEN PRINCE (Nadav Schirman). 100 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens Friday (October 17). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
This documentary about a Hamas leader’s son who spied for Israeli security agency Shin Bet for over a decade has everything: intrigue, tension, emotion.
Mosab Hassan Yousef grows up in the shadow of his father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, developing a passion for Palestine and a hatred for Israel. While in an Israeli prison for gun-running, the younger Yousef grows disenchanted with Hamas’s violent methods and is “turned” by Shin Bet agent Gonen Ben Yitzhak. Yousef goes back to Gaza to work for his father, the perfect way to gain information for the Israelis.
Using archival footage, old news reports, some re-enactments and interviews with both men – all expertly edited – the film paints a fascinating picture of the machinations of the spy world, as well as the sacrifices Yousef makes. The surprising emotional core of the film is the bromance between the spy and his handler – highly unusual in these situations.
Strangely, the doc drops and then runs away from the fact that Yousef was raped as a child by a Palestinian, and I wish it revealed more about his conversion to Christianity once he’s forced to flee to the United States.
But the bigger problem is that, given what its two main subjects do for a living, it’s hard to believe a word either of them says.
But that might just be director Nadav Schirman’s point.