The Green Prince is based on the autobiography Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef, who worked as a spy for the Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet. He was in fact one of its most prized spies, being the Palestinian son of a Hamas leader. This is his story and the story of his life of lie and the constant danger of being discovered. But it is also the story of his relationship with his handler, Gonen Ben Yitzhak, and this aspect is probably the most fascinating of the whole story, as eventually the two find themselves in a situation where they must make a decision that will affect their rest of their lives and reach out to one another.
Director Nadav Schirman purposefully strips the exploration of the socio-political cultural context to its bare essentials, merely offering us a simplified version of the tense atmosphere. Most of it is explores in the beginning of the film, so rapidly and coldly as if it really were of no importance. Furthermore, the film is split up into short chapters, a further narrative choice that points at a desperate wish for simplification. Many will indeed criticise the film for its superficial examination of the political struggle, but it is not wrong of Schirman to want to make a film that is as gripping as a fictional thriller also because of the great attention he pays to telling the human side of the story with great urgence and intimacy. This is an approach that ends making The Green Prince more significant and powerful than most other preachy and patronising documentary films that explore the same subject.
Its exciting nature also makes it more easily appealing to a wider audience, who should find it entertaining from start to finish, thanks to the great work of recreations and the contributions with Mosab and Gonen themselves who, among other experts in the field, remind us that all that is being told really happened and is probably happening right now again as we are watching.
