Saturday, November 17, 2018

7 Days in Entebbe 2018


      An Air France Flight 139 from Tel-Aviv to Paris via Athens with 248 passengers and a crew of 12 is hijacked on 27 June 1976.  Two Palestinians and two Germans were in charge of the operation.  Two hijackers were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- External Operations.  The other two hijackers were members of the German Revolutionary Cells.  At the airport, the passengers were separated into two categories, Jewish and non-Jewish.  Their demand was freedom for 40 Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons plus 13 prisoners in four other countries and a ransom of $5 million.  The flight landed in Entebbe Uganda and Ugandan President Idi Amin personally welcomed the hostages. 
      A LOT of the information above is not given in the film including the number of passengers, the number of crew members and many other relevant facts.  This is supposed to be an action film but there is very little real action?  It’s a lot of yelling and bullying of innocent people not involved with or responsible for anything the terrorists stand for?  When Idi Amin was controlling Uganda, this was not a country friendly to the landing of an unwanted plane filled with unwanted people!!  (2 ½* this movie is so-so)

107 min, Action directed by Jose Padilha with Batsheva Dance Company, Zina Zinchenko, Ben Schnetzer, Daniel Bruhl, Amir Khoury, Ala Dakka, Rosamund Pike, Paloma Coquant, Trudy Weiss, Danny Scheinmann, Brontis Jadorowsky, Denis Menochet, Gal Pertsiger, Saffron Scheinmann.

Note:  Imdb 5.8 out of 10, Roger Ebert 2*, Amazon 2.5* out of 5* with 148 reviews, Metacritic 49 out of 100 with 29 critics 5.8 out of 10 with 34 reviews, Common Sense Media age 14+, 1* positive messages, 1* role models, 4* violence, 3* language 2* drinking, drugs & smoking.
Special Note:  Filmed in Malta and the UK.  The plane landing shots were filmed at Malta International Airport in Luqa.  The day after filming wrapped, a real-life hijacked Libyan plane landed very close to the set.  Yonatan (Yoni) Netanyahu participated in the raid of the airport by IDF commandos and he is the older brother of Benjamin Netanyahu.  Benjamin became Prime Minister of Israel in 2009.   Replica hand grenades and pistols were used.  Dorah Block is listed as one of the casualties of the IDF raid but she didn’t die during the raid.  She became ill early in the siege and she was sent to a hospital in nearby Kampala.  Two army officers following the orders of Idi Amin murdered Dorah and the murder was in retaliation for the Israeli raid. Some of her doctors and nurses were also murdered because they intervened and cared for Dorah.

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