It’s a distinct genre of conflict cinema that is all about the human toll of war that scathingly critiques the national policies, protests authoritarianism...

| Oct 26, 2023

The film points to the nearly impossible personal and social conditions for the Palestinians under Israeli rule. ... Omar brings to life the tragic situation in intimate, concrete detail.

| Feb 12, 2021

With Omar he has delivered an incredibly powerful story in a lean 90 minutes, a commendable economy that should be a lesson to the ever-increasing number of directors who believe a film must run to two-hour plus to deliver emotional weight.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 26, 2020

Omar is a suspenseful moral quandary, tripped up only be an illogical, but inevitable, conclusion.

| Original Score: 3.2/5 | Nov 22, 2019

Though narratively uninspired and lacking strong performances to lead us through the tale, Abu-Assad's pensive examination of the toxic environment in the Middle East is as riveting as it was in his lauded suicide bomber drama.

| Original Score: 7.6/10 | Apr 3, 2019

There are no clear-cut good guys or bad guys in Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad's stinging vision; no one in Omar exits with clean hands, which helps lift the movie above its grounding in the basics of film noir.

| Aug 31, 2018

The action tropes handled so well in the film's first half are pushed aside for clumsy melodrama by the end of the film.

| Aug 31, 2018

Omar is a relatively undidactic take on the lives of ordinary Palestinians with no choice but to endure the indignities imposed by the constraints of Israel's "separation wall."

| Oct 3, 2017

Omar is an obvious political thriller which consistently, insistently attempts to steer us in a particular direction.

| Original Score: C- | Jun 22, 2016

Beautifully shot, complicated, smart, and undeniably intense ... well-deserving of its place as the Palestinian nominee for this year's Best Foreign Language Film.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Sep 7, 2014

Doesn't provide easy answers as it builds its pressure cooker environment, putting primary attention on the personalities involved, allowing for a human perspective as it details acts of breathless survival and suffocating paranoia.

| Original Score: A- | Jul 5, 2014

From button-pushing Palestinian writer/director Hany Abu-Assad, who gave us the inflammatory Paradise Now in 2005, comes an equally piercing, if less politically strident look at life under Israeli occupation.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 6, 2014

Bakri gives a richly detailed performance, often allowing his stoicism to slip and reveal the confused and angry young man within.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 6, 2014

Abu-Assad does not aim for the Dardennes' breathless immediacy. Rather, the story is laid out in a lucid, diagrammatic way, like a mathematical proof that for someone in Omar's position there are no right choices.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 4, 2014

This is a subtle political film: one that fully dramatises a situation and lets us think out its contradictions for ourselves.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 1, 2014

Abu-Assad is simply reflecting the ever-changing nature of his characters' daily lives in a fraught and strange environment in which betrayal has become endemic.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 30, 2014

As in his Golden Globe-winning 2005 drama Paradise Now, Israeli filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad takes a complex, personal approach to a touchy political-religious situation in this Palestinian love story.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 30, 2014

The end result is a nerve-rattling entertainment flavoured by vigorous, deeply felt polemic.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 30, 2014

A tense, involving combination of love story and thriller.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 29, 2014

The story dishes out action and surprises without losing its political intent.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 29, 2014