The Attack (الهجوم)

The Attack (الهجوم) is a 2012 drama film directed by Ziad Doueiri, adapted from Yasmina Khadra's bestselling 2005 novel of the same name, about an Israeli Palestinian surgeon whose wife is revealed to have been the suicide bomber in a Tel Aviv restaurant attack.^{1 • 2} It stars Ali Suliman as Amin Jaafari and Reymonde Amsellem as his wife Sihem, was written by Doueiri with Joëlle Touma, and is a Lebanon, France, Egypt, and Belgium co-production shot in Arabic and Hebrew.^{1 • 2} The film won festival prizes at San Sebastián and Marrakech but was boycotted across the Arab world because Doueiri filmed in Israel with Israeli actors.^{3 • 4}

The source novel and the adaptation

The film adapts The Attack (French title L'attentat), published in 2005 by Yasmina Khadra, the pen name of the Algerian writer Mohammed Moulessehoul, a retired Algerian army officer. The novel has been translated into more than 40 languages and won numerous awards, including the Prix des Tropiques and the Prix des Libraires in 2006.^{5 • 10}

Doueiri and Touma made deliberate changes. In the film Sihem is portrayed as Christian rather than Muslim as in the book; Doueiri said the change began accidentally when, scouting in Nablus at midnight, he came upon a small 11th- or 12th-century Orthodox church, and that he wanted to show that Christians are also part of the struggle and to make the story unpredictable.¹¹ The ending also differs: in the novel Amin dies in Palestine, while in the film he is rejected in both Israel and the Palestinian territories. Khadra was initially upset at the changed ending but later defended the film, saying that if he rewrote the book he would incorporate elements from it.^{11 • 12} Scenes set in Bethlehem in the novel were moved to Nablus because Doueiri found it more interesting to film, and the bloody Israeli attack on Jenin that opens and closes the book was excised from the film.¹³

In October 2013, Doueiri and Touma received the €10,000 Frankfurt Book Fair prize for Best International Literary Adaptation for the screenplay.⁸

Production

Doueiri, born in Beirut and raised during Lebanon's civil war, studied film at San Diego State University and worked as an assistant camera and camera operator in Los Angeles from 1987 to 1997 on films including Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown. The Attack was his third feature, after West Beirut (1998) and Lila Says (2004).^{5 • 12}

The project began when Focus Features invited Doueiri to develop the book; the studio later pulled out before production, and his French producers bought the script back. The $1.5-million production drew financing from Qatar, Egypt, France, and Belgium, and two investors, one in Qatar and one in Egypt, removed their names after seeing the finished film.^{12 • 7} Doueiri spent 11 months filming in Tel Aviv and Nablus with Israeli and Palestinian actors; the crew crossed Israeli roadblocks to shoot on location in Nablus.^{3 • 9}

Reception and awards

The film premiered at the 2012 Telluride Film Festival and screened at Toronto, San Sebastián, and other festivals.^{4 • 2} It won the Special Jury Award at the San Sebastián Film Festival 2012 and the Golden Star for Best Feature Film at Morocco's Marrakech Film Festival, and took three prizes at the COLCOA French film festival in Hollywood: the audience award, the "Coming Soon" award, and a special jury prize.^{3 • 14} On review aggregators it scored 74 on Metacritic based on 24 critic reviews and 86 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 58 reviews, with a critics consensus calling it tense, suspenseful, smart, and understated.^{15 • 16}

It was released in France on 29 May 2013 and in the United States on 21 June 2013.^{17 • 16} The film received a sold-out premiere at the Jerusalem Film Festival in July 2013, the only commercial distribution deal in the Middle East.⁹

Censorship and the Oscar dispute

In May 2013 the League of Arab States asked all 22 of its member nations to boycott the film, which had been scheduled for release in nearly two dozen Arab countries ahead of its U.S. premiere. The ban extended beyond commercial theaters; Doueiri said his wife was warned she would be arrested if she held a private screening in Beirut, so they canceled it.⁴

Lebanon's response was the sharpest. Between September 2012 and April 2013 the Interior Ministry first granted the film an official exhibition license and then revoked it, because part of the film was shot in Tel Aviv with Israeli actors, under a 1955 Lebanese law boycotting Israel.^{18 • 9} The Lebanese film academy also refused to submit the film as the country's nominee for the best foreign-language Oscar, saying it could not have a film with Israeli actors represent Lebanon.³ Doueiri argued the film was banned not simply for its Israeli filming but because it does not demonize Israelis, and said a lawyer told him the 1955 law left no legal loopholes, so his only hope was public opinion.^{7 • 11} He expected Arab audiences to see the film only via pirated DVDs.⁷

References

1. The Attack, Kino Lorber Theatrical
2. The Attack, Cineuropa
3. The Lebanese film that was 'too Israeli' for the Oscars, The Times of Israel
4. Arab nations ban 'The Attack' from exhibition, Los Angeles Times
5. The Attack press kit, Unifrance
6. The Attack, Festival des Cinémas d'Asie de Vesoul
7. Ziad Doueiri's film 'The Attack' encounters opposition, Los Angeles Times
8. 'The Attack' Filmmakers Discuss Difficult Literary Adaptation, Publishing Perspectives
9. 'The Attack': Lebanese director's film about suicide bombing gets Israeli premiere, The Washington Post
10. Khadra, Yasmina, encyclopedia entry
11. Interview: Ziad Doueiri on The Attack, Slant Magazine
12. Interview: Ziad Doueiri (The Attack), IONCINEMA.com
13. 'The Attack': Comparing film with book, Partners For Progressive Israel
14. Beirut bans Lebanese film shot in Israel, Ynetnews
15. The Attack Reviews, Metacritic
16. The Attack (2012), Rotten Tomatoes
17. The Attack, Unifrance
18. وقف عرض فيلم «الصدمة» في لبنان بسبب التصوير داخل تل أبيب, الراي

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2010 to 2014 › Psychological and social drama films

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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