Review: 7 Days in Entebbe

Arguably the weakest re-telling of Operation Entebbe aka Operation Thunderbolt, a mission in which an elite team of Israeli commandos successfully rescued 102 Israeli hostages who had been captured and held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by a group of self-proclaimed revolutionaries, 7 Days in Entebbe is a curiously work, devoid of any nuance or thrills, the type that takes real-life events and makes them into a dry history lesson instead of breathing life and dimension into a past that is still very much present.

The film announces itself boldly, opening on a striking performance of Ohad Naharin's "Echad Mi Yodea" by the Batsheva Dance Company. The piece, featuring dancers in dark suits and brimmed black hats who jerk and hurl their bodies to the heavens as they strip off their clothes, is a powerful conveyance of the trials and tribulations that have striated the history of Israel. Director José Padilha returns to the dance throughout the film, but he may have done well to remain on the dance, perhaps even used the creation and execution of its choreography as the actual narrative against which to explore the conflicts between Israel and Palestine.

Or he could have centred on the back room power struggle between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (an excellent Lior Ashkenazi), who wants to solve the situation through negotiation, and Defense Minister Shimon Peres (Eddie Marsan, seemingly hampered by prosthetics into delivering a one-note portrayal), who prefers to take action. Or the film could have exploited the vaguely satirical undertone of the scenes featuring Ugandan President Idi Amin (Nonso Anozie), as he welcomes the hostages into his country's airport terminal as if heralding the people into a holiday resort.

All of which is to say that there may be a reason why previous depictions of this particular slice of history have evaded focusing on the hijackers, who are primarily represented here by Daniel Brühl and Rosamund Pike, both solid if unremarkable in their roles as German ideologues who have teamed up with a pro-Palestinian group and who increasingly find themselves in over their heads. Though screenwriter Gregory Burke seems intent on giving everyone their say, he doesn't exactly humanise any of his characters, instead utilising most of them as human echo chambers rather than as people. Add to that some rather unfortunate dialogue, some ludicrous romantic contrivances and an overall staleness in atmosphere and design and 7 Days in Entebbe is quite a disappointing watch.

7 Days in Entebbe

Directed by: José Padilha

Written by: Gregory Burke

Starring: Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl, Lior Ashkenazi, Eddie Marsan, Ben Schnetzer, Denis Ménochet