Hanna K. Reviews

This frustrating film from Constantin Costa-Gavras stars Jill Clayburgh as Hanna Kaufman, an American-Jewish lawyer who defends a young Palestinian, Selim Bakri (Mohamed Bakri), who sues Israel for the right to live on his ancestral land on the Left Bank. Josue Herzog (Gabriel Byrne), the arrogant young Israeli who represents the government in the case, is also the man whose child Hanna is bearing. When she and Selim also become lovers, politics and romance become painfully and inextricably linked for the idealistic American. Surprisingly, for a Costa-Gavras film, HANNA K.'s potential for political provocation is clouded by the script's contrived romantic flip-flops. Clayburgh's character is weak and hence unsympathetic, and Byrne's Israeli is so obnoxious one can't help but root for Bakri's noble Arab. It may be too much to expect an "objective" examination of such an explosive issue in any film, let alone one by such a champion of the oppressed as Costa-Gavras, but those expecting the gripping dramatic tension of the director's Z (1969); STATE OF SIEGE (1973); or MISSING (1982) are likely to be disappointed by HANNA K. In English.