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 "7 Days in Entebbe", which premiered on Monday at the Berlin
film festival, focuses on the hostages and their hijackers - two
militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
and two from an allied West German ultra-leftist group.
The flight was en route from Tel Aviv to Paris on June 27, 1976
when, after a stopover in Athens where four hijackers slipped on
board, it was commandeered and diverted to Entebbe. The four
hijackers were joined by several others there.
Separating Israeli from non-Israelis after removing them from
the plane, the hijackers freed 148 non-Israeli passengers over
the course of several days and kept 94 mainly Israeli passengers
along with the 12 crew members, threatening to kill them if
their demands were not met.
In the film, as terrified hostages await their fate in a grimy,
disused airport terminal building, Israeli politicians debate
whether to negotiate with the hijackers - who want dozens of
imprisoned Palestinian guerrillas and other militants freed -
but ultimately decide on the rescue mission.
After a 2,500-mile (4,000-km) undercover flight to Uganda, elite
Israeli military commandos stormed the terminal building under
cover of darkness on July 4, saving all but four of the
hostages, who were killed, and killing all the hijackers.
The only death among the commandos was their commander Yonatan
Netanyahu, eldest brother of current Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, who became a national hero.
Director Jose Padilha said it was difficult for Israeli or
Palestinian politicians to negotiate because those who do so
lose political clout among their compatriots - something he
wanted to demonstrate in his movie.
"RECURRENT CONFLICT"
"In this recurrent conflict, it's very easy for politicians to
present themselves as: 'I'm going to defend you against the
enemy', and, once you frame the relationship as a relationship
like that - two enemies - it becomes hard to negotiate," he said
at a post-screening news conference. "That's still true today."
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Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been frozen for years
over Israeli settlements in occupied territory that Palestinians
seek for a state, borders, refugees and the disputed status of
Jerusalem.
Rosamund Pike, who plays one of the militants from the West German
Revolutionary Cells, said all the characters had a cause and the
film presents the beliefs of the hijackers and Israeli government
alike but leaves it up to viewers to make a judgment.
"I think we all agree that any act of extremism is deplorable. But
it is interesting to not make them one-dimensional villains but be
able to recognize that emotion, human emotion, plays a part, whether
you're the hero or villain, right?" she told Reuters.
Her co-star Daniel Bruehl, who plays the other West German hijacker,
said the film tried to show there were multiple versions of history
rather than just one.
"(It's) a film that is not easy, a film in which you know all these
different voices and mindsets are heard and seen in order to
understand also where we are coming from and what the situation is
right now," he said.
Jacques Lemoine, an engineer who survived the hijacking, said he
liked the film and found it was an accurate depiction.
"7 Days in Entebbe", is one of around 400 films being screened at
this year's Berlinale but is not competing for the Golden and Silver
Bears to be awarded on Saturday. The festival in the German capital
runs until Feb. 25.
(Writing by Michelle Martin; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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