Private

Critics Consensus

Italian director Saverio Costanzo delivers a gritty and intimate drama about how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict affects a Palestinian family and the Israeli soldiers occupying their home.

Private Photos

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Movie Info

Mohammad, his wife and their five children live in a large, isolated house located halfway between a Palestinian village and an Israeli settlement. The house, in the crossfire of the two sides, is a strategic lookout point that the Israeli army decides to seize, confining the family to a few downstairs rooms in daytime and a single room at night. Mohammad refuses to leave his home and, reinforced by his principles against violence, decides to find a way to keep his family together in the house until the Israeli soldiers move on.

Rating:

R
Genre:

Art House & International, Drama
Directed By:

Saverio Costanzo
Written By:

Saverio Costanzo, Camilla Costanzo, Alessio Cremonini, Sayed Qashua
In Theaters:

Nov 18, 2005 limited
On Disc/Streaming:

Jun 6, 2006
Runtime:

93 minutes
Studio:

Typecast Releasing

Cast

Mohammed Bakri
as Mohammad B.

Mohammad Bakri
as Mohammad

Lior Miller
as Commander Ofer

Hend Ayoub
as Mariam B.

Areen Omari

Tomer Russo
as Private Eial

Tomer Ruso

Areen Omary
as Samiah B.

Marco Alsaying
as Jamal B.

Sara Hamzeh
as Sarah B.

Karem Emad Hassan Aly
as Karem B.

Sarah Hamzeh

Amir Hasayen
as Amir B.

Niv Shafir
as Private Dan

Sahar Lachmy
as Private Ariel

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Critic Reviews for Private

All Critics (34) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (28) | Rotten (6)

A sketchy but compelling Italian movie about Middle East power struggles.

Apr 7, 2006 | Rating: 3/4

John Hartl
Seattle Times
Top Critic
The film's paranoia and sense of futility won't change your feelings about the Middle East. But it may open your eyes to the sense of violation that drives the endless cycle of violence there.

Mar 15, 2006 | Rating: 4/5

Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic
... involving and provocative ...

Dec 2, 2005 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic
While the film is ultimately too limited in its scope to have much lingering impact, it does make for a thoughtful addition to the growing list of films dealing with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Dec 2, 2005

Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic
The young Italian director Saverio Costanzo puts an unnervingly intimate twist on the costs of military occupation in this aptly claustrophobic drama.

Dec 1, 2005

Ella Taylor
L.A. Weekly
Top Critic
The Palestinian characters are so thinly conceived that they might as well be named Victims One through Seven, and they're far more developed than the Israeli characters.

Nov 18, 2005 | Rating: 1/4

Kyle Smith
New York Post
Top Critic
Shooting with hand-held digital video cameras, Costanzo achieves a powerful immediacy, particularly when conveying the chaos and terror of the nighttime raids endured by the family.

Apr 24, 2019 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Tom Dawson
The List
... as politically defiant a metaphor for Israeli-Palestinian relations in the occupied territories as you'll ever see on screen.

Apr 6, 2006 | Rating: B | Full Review…

Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The script is occasionally heavy-handed in laying out motivation and meaning, but excellent performances from the Israeli-Palestinian cast and a chilling moral elevate this to more than 'issue film' status.

Apr 1, 2006 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Empire Magazine
Costanzo's debut feature film is potent stuff.

Mar 18, 2006 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle
The movie is more noteworthy for the intimate suspense it brings to the subject of Israeli occupation than for any dramatic conclusion it chooses to reach.

Mar 9, 2006 | Full Review…

Steve Schneider
Orlando Weekly
Rather than evincing some subtlety in its depiction of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the movie's Italian makers prefer to engage in melodrama and simplistic Israel-bashing.

Jan 1, 2006 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

Shlomo Schwartzberg
Boxoffice Magazine

View All Critic Reviews (34)

Audience Reviews for Private

Nov 26, 2005

[font=Century Gothic]In "Private" a Palestinian family is not only living in the battlefield of the occupied West Bank but now they must face the additional indignity of having the Israeli army occupy their house. The army gets the second floor(under no circumstances are the family to venture there) and the family must stay downstairs. After dark, they are confined to the living room. For the father, Mohammed, a learned, dignified man, being a refugee would be worse and he insists on staying.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Private" is a tense drama with realistic situations. The film boils the whole Arab-Israeli conflict down to a microcosm of a single house being occupied. Through the character of the father, other ways are suggested of fighting the Israeli army than violence. And the individual soldiers are not shown as being the villains.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Georgia][color=navy]In "Down to the Bone", Irene(Vera Farmiga) is a mother to two young sons and wife to a construction worker. She works as a cashier at a supermarket in upstate New York. She is also addicted to cocaine. And she has been using since high school. After one particularly embarrassing attempt to buy drugs fails, she realizes she needs help and enters rehab.[/color][/font] [font=Georgia][color=#000080][/color][/font] [font=Georgia][color=#000080]"Down to the Bone" covers some familiar ground but does so in a totally unglamorous way. The movie does not offer any easy answers or solutions. The movie is anchored by a very strong performance by Vera Farmiga.[/color][/font]

Walter M Super Reviewer