I bambini di Arna

"Arna's Children" is indeed a very powerful movie. The message transcends ethnicity, religion, and class. Arna proved the futility in stereotyping. She showed love and compassion to Palestinian children, not as a Jew, but as a caring and compassionate human being.

Arna and Juliano showed the Palestinian children that if no one else cared, they did. They created the theatre as a positive outlet for creativity and expression. They let the children know that they mattered. Above all, they proved that someone loved them enough to want them to experience the joy and laughter of childhood in the midst of such utter chaos.

To see this movie as glorifying Palestinian militants is to be naive and miss the whole point. What the movie does do is show the ugly and chaotic side of living in an oppressive police state through the eyes of children.

The film brings home the detrimental aspects of how one often reaps what they sow when using violence and oppressive force to solve problems. It reminds us of how today's feeble and fearful child too often goes on to become tomorrow's angry and militant young man.