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For many of us, no film can offer a full comprehension of the suicide bomber. A fictional film like the Oscar-nominated Paradise Now can attempt to humanize him and an in-depth documentary like Pierre Rehov’s Suicide Killers can give a rounded discussion of motives, but it is impossible to really put a viewer in the shoes and mind of such a person. Film can serve as an excellent stepping stone, though, and while a fictional story is fine to pique interest in the subject, it is Rehov’s documentary, with its intent to fully explain and analyze, that gives us the better

Suicide Killers is not precisely an educational starting point, and it does not go too much into the history or politics of the Israel-Palestine clash. Instead it is more of an essay documentary in which Rehov sets out to understand the psychopathology of the Palestinian suicide bomber. The film features a number of mental health experts weighing in on reasons and incentives, some of which are obvious or well-known like brainwashing and the promise of eternal paradise. Other explanations are more complex, such as the notion that suicide bombers are subconsciously responding to their heightened sexual repression and frustration.

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Original post by Christopher Campbell