Forgiveness and empathy are the key themes of Shelley Hermon’s Within the Eye of the Storm, a classically structured and mostly well-guided documentary about the seemingly endless war between the Israelis and Palestinians. If The Attack told of a very fictionalized, but realistic portrait of roughly the same issues, this documentary dives headfirst into the tragedy and the lives affected by these countries and their feud — but with a distanced approach.
While Hermon’s graceful and objective presence behind the camera is felt, Within the Eye of the Storm almost resembles a homework assignment during the course of its hour runtime. While the emotions and the personal tolls of its subject are charted and examined, it all seems to be from afar; Hermon’s film sidesteps around a whole lot just to safely round the bases and arrive at a point of solace.
The central focus does go more in-depth than just focusing in on two opposing countries. We mostly follow the unlikely friendship between Bassam (Palestinian) and Rami (Israeli), past soldiers turned activists who were willing to die for their respective nations. Their journey together stems from both of their young daughters having been killed by the same violent cause they were fighting for.
Bassam and Rami host a radio show together in hopes of conveying their transformation together to their listeners — which again briefly exposes us to their unexpected connection. With this, Hermon focuses in on joint bereavement and tragedy via unexpected bonds and forms of reconciliation. Not only this, but the two men seek out to communicate with the parties responsible for taking the lives of their daughters. You can sense that Hermon is sniffing around for resourceful truth, but it never quite reaches intended levels of transcendence. Bassam and Rami come across not as kindred spirits, but as Exhibit A and Exhibit B of the same awful calamity.
Instead of injecting the usual talking head motif, Within the Eye of the Storm plays out more like a docudrama and a history lesson. The conversations and interactions that take place are revealing in a very general sense and fail to add an extra dimension to who these men really are amid such tremendous turmoil. The ties to their homelands, their search for justice, and their forever lost children are matters of serious weight, but it’s exclusively told instead of felt. We witness Bassam and Rami come to terms with tragedy as we follow their daily lives and personal struggle, with the former’s involvement in a case against the State over the specifics of his daughter’s death acting as the film’s only source of momentum.
As a whole, Hermon’s depicted ongoing prayer for peace and communication is mostly harmless in its execution. While the people and the events are all routinely in place for Within the Eye of the Storm to serve as a staunch wake-up call, the foundation on display here is one of only passive sincerity.
