Director Hany Abu-Assad grew up in Nazareth before moving to Amsterdam to study at college with the goal of becoming an engineer. His route to filmmaking began as a boast. Trying to impress a girl he liked, he told her he was a director. He wasn't, but the seed was planted. With "Paradise Now" he received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film, surely a sign of respect for how well he handled this very sensitive topic.
As he told The Japan Times in an interview in Shibuya: "Whatever you do, you're going to upset people on both sides; it's a trap. But others will appreciate it, because there are enough people in this world who are open-minded and want to know more."
The Bush White House would describe the characters in your film very simply: "Evil." Was your film a response to this sort of simplification?