The Green Prince

It begins as a riveting documentary on a Hamas leader's son who becomes an Israeli spy, code-named the Green Prince. The film not only focuses on this unlikely protagonist but the Israeli Shin Bet agent who turned him. Any story set in the Middle East is lucky to be rendered in shades of gray almost lacking in any stark black or whites. The Green Prince is even muddier and more complicated.

It is even more disturbing as Mosab Hassan Yousef gives every evidence of acting from the deepest moral convictions and intense humanitarian concerns, but his Israeli handler, Gonen Ben Yitzhak, cold-bloodedly talks about him mostly as an asset at first. Fascinatingly, unlike a spy fiction, the film tends to slow down as it goes along, depending too much on talking heads, repeated footage, and dramatic reenactments.

There is no grand climax, only the increasingly complex moral swamp that surrounds viewers. Interestingly, as it progresses, Yousef becomes more and more convinced of the rightness of his actions, while Yitzhak begins to question Israeli spy tactics and strategies.

There is much pain, and any number of deeply philosophical questions posed, if not answered. This is very powerful stuff, but what you ultimately make of it will have a lot to do with the politics you bring to watching it. It doesn't entirely work, and its too-tight focus and lack of adequate context hampers it. But, finally, its lurching quest for some moral center creates a unique and unavoidable tension.