IMDb > To See If I'm Smiling (2007) > IMDb user comments
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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Re: Sentimental Bunk, 18 June 2009
8/10
Author: jgrogan-3 from United States

I don't know what film you watched but it doesn't appear that you watched this one very closely.

Of course this film is not about war. It's not a war film, nor is it a film about the occupation of Palestine though the conflict there forms the backdrop of the film. It neither glamorizes, justifies nor excuses any of the events that happen in the Occupied Territories. And there is no political context alluded to this film because this film is, I think, very deliberately apolitical. The film makers display no overt bias one way or the other. And in so doing, one is allowed to take their own meaning from the film.

That said it's pretty obvious to me that the occupation of Palestine not only diminishes the humanity of Palestinians but also that of the occupiers. The line between justifiable self preservation and unwarranted sadism is proved to be very thin.

The subjects in the film don't speak politically and they don't resort to easy rhetoric. It shows that it is extremely difficult to do the "right thing", what can happen if you try to and ultimately the great psychological price one pays for having to leave one's moral compass to one side.

Highly recommended if uncomfortable viewing

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
interview documentary about six or seven girls in Israeli military service, 24 December 2007
8/10
Author: mennogaijkema from Netherlands

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is a very moving interview documentary about six or seven girls who were drafted in Israeli military service. They tell about what they did, saw and heard, and about what they should have done. It's nothing different from other war stories - which is all the worse. It made me think again about what people did in ... (Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Indonesia etc etc.)

The stories themselves of course are subjective, but it's all presented very matter-of-fact. Almost no tears, no one 's good or bad -this is just what happens when people get into war.

The title is connected to one of the girls' story; she's very ashamed about her having a picture taken next to the body of a dead 'enemy' and she wants to see the picture.. to see if she smiles.

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0 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Sentimental bunk, 27 November 2008
1/10
Author: slssls-1 from Canada

This is NOT a film about "war". It is a film about an illegal brutal occupation of Palestine.

This occupation is the logical result of the creation of a colonial-settler state based on a religious and ethnic orthodoxy. An exclusive, exclusionary and discriminatory Jewish state.

There is no political context to this film.

It denies the power relationship existing here.

What about those Israeli Occupation Force (IDF) conscripts who refuse to participate in this occupation and terrorizing of the Palestinian population?

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