"Paradise Now" semiotics semi-idiotic

We are confused, and so is the Academy, it seems. For now, the suicide bomber drama "Paradise Now," is a film without a country. Per Reuters, "Oscar organizers said on Tuesday they have not yet decided how to designate a film about suicide bombers in the West Bank but denied they were being pressed by Israel to say the movie came from the Palestinian Authority rather than Palestine....An Israel diplomat on Sunday told Reuters in Jerusalem that Israel and U.S. Jewish groups were lobbying the Academy not to present 'Paradise Now' as coming from 'Palestine.'" The film is listed as coming from "Palestine" on the Academy's website, but at the Oscar nom it was flagged as "submitted by the Palestinian Authority." You can almost feel the weighty political ramifications hanging on Oscar's academicians: If the Academy recognizes Palestine, can the U.N. be far behind?! In the interest of geopolitical correctness, (instead of mere political correctness) it would seem to make more sense to describe the film as neither from Palestine nor from the Palestinian Authority, and to simply call the film Palestinian. After all, everyone has all sorts of opinions about whether or not there's a Palestine, and whether or not the P.A. ought to be recognized as the legitmate goverment thereof, but no one can deny that country or no, people who call themselves Palestinians exist. Such an ambiguous designation would be almost poetic. A spokesman for the Academy says no decision has been made on how to designate the film. We humbly suggest they set about figuring it out; the Oscars are only 19 days away. Simultaneously, a similar semantic scandal has enveloped "Munich": No word from the Academy on whether it will be described on the kudocast as an overwrought thriller based on a false premise, or an a false premise based on an overwrought thriller.

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"Paradise Now" semiotics semi-idiotic

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