The Green Prince Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Green Prince Blu-ray Movie Review

It's not easy being green.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 26, 2015

The news from the Middle East is rarely good, and it’s not unusual to see the day’s events play out to disparaging comments by stateside pundits who variously decry tactics and/or groups involved in this seemingly unending conflict. News junkies are therefore pretty used to hearing about Hamas, even if they don’t have a completely clear understanding of what the group actually is. Hamas is branded as a terrorist organization by several countries, including the United States, but some defenders try to separate the actual terrorists—Hamas’ military wing — from the rank and file, some of whom have campaigned for an end to hostilities, if only temporarily. Hamas’ stated aim is to “liberate” Palestine, which in their minds means retaking Israel (or at least large swaths of it) as well as reclaiming land that Palestinians were forced to evacuate either after the initial of founding of Israel or through accretion due to the many skirmishes has Israel fought since its founding. The Green Prince, a visually dowdy documentary that nonetheless presents an often riveting story, details the rather unlikely tale of Mosab Hasan Yousef, born into a kind of “royal” Hamas family as the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, credited with being one of the co-founders of Hamas back in the 1980s. Mosab was raised to hate Israelis and was involved in what he insists was a relatively small scale attempt to smuggle guns for Hamas, something that led to what this documentary states was his first arrest by Israel. (The Wikipedia entry on Mosab states multiple prior arrests for the youth.) Though "turned" successfully by the Israeli security forces, Mosab was forced to endure months in a Hamas wing of a prison in Megiddo (that Hebrew root comes down to us in "armageddon", an apt description of the jail for Mosab). While temporarily held by the Israelis, Mosab had a kind of weird pang of conscience when Shin Bet, the Israeli security force in charge of him, treated him like an actual human. Later Mosab contrasted this with the Hamas' treatment of prisoners in its wing. There, prisoners were treated like chattel, and Mosab was shocked to witness the horrific torture the prisoners were forced to endure—at the hands of Hamas itself. . Though the documentary is a bit discursive in really laying out a firm motivation for Mosab, the upshot is that the young man agreed to go undercover in Hamas and spy on the organization for the benefit of Israel.

For better and/or worse, The Green Prince is told virtually exclusively from the viewpoints of the two men who lived it—Mosab, now an expat living in the United States; and Gonen Ben-Itzhak, the Shin Bet operative who initially turned Mosab and then handled him for a rather surprisingly long span of time. That gives The Green Prince (the title refers to Shin Bet’s code name for Mosab) a rare intimacy, but it also tends to leave certain questions unanswered as well as give an occasionally too narrow focus, divorcing an admittedly fascinating story from its historical epoch.

There are some devastating throwaway comments scattered throughout The Green Prince, though, that really sheds a light in a perhaps unexpected way on Palestinian, or at least Hamas, culture. Over and over and over again, Mosab refers to various “shames” he or his family either had endured or sought to evade. A lot of Mosab’s psychology seems built out of this “shame aversion,” and when relatively late in the film he details a rather shocking incident from his youth, Freudians at least are going to have a field day. But even Gonen, who has a degree in psychology, talks about how knowing a potential source’s “weak spots” can only help in the recruitment process. While Gonen never explicitly speaks to utilizing shame as a fulcrum, it seems obvious that somehow shame played into Mosab’s thinking. That’s especially ironic, as even Mosab seems to realize, given the fact that spying for Israel is easily the most shameful thing Mosab possibly could have done (like I said, Freudians are going to have a field day with Mosab).

It’s interesting to contrast the real life scenario in The Green Prince with afictional counterpart that’s part of the subplot of A Most Wanted Man. There, it’s a world weary operative, a typical John le Carré espionage bureaucrat who uses the son of a local supposed philanthropist to get information on potential terrorist activities. Gonen instead comes off as almost perky by comparison, laughing at what a “game” it had all been and how he had been able to “play” sources, including Mosab, through the years. But Gonen reveals the human connection that had been forged between the two when he comes to the aid of an abandoned Mosab later in the documentary, after Mosab had made it to the United States but was facing deportation due to his involvement with Hamas. (Mosab perhaps only half jokingly refers to Hamas as his “family business.”)

While the first person confessionals are undeniably riveting, director Nadav Schirman tarts things up with a variety of needless bells and whistles, including dunderheaded “reenactments” and the repeated visual motif of I am guessing is supposed to be “drone footage,” as if to suggest none too subtly that Big Brother is always watching, so even undercover spies aren’t safe. There’s some good archival footage, though, especially of Mosab’s father, footage which gives a much more visceral insight into Hamas and the fervor of its adherents. The machinating on the parts of both Mosab and Gonen that The Green Prince details is the documentary’s most compelling content, once again showing Mosab struggling with attempts at rationalization while Gonen sees events in a more strategically minded idiom. Perhaps unavoidably, The Green Prince documents both what binds and separates Palestinians and Israelis, but it’s notable that Mosab and Gonen seem to consider themselves brothers.

The Green Prince Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Green Prince is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Music Box Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The interview segments are by and large shot without much in the way of lighting or other accoutrements, and offer an accurate if not especially well detailed view of the participants' faces. That is, at least, until director Schirman opts for a few "artier" effects like extreme close-ups, at which point fine detail increases appreciably (see screenshot 1). The faux "drone" footage is intentionally distressed, with an applied video effect that keeps even reasonable detail well at bay. Archival footage is in various condition, but overall looks good, if softer and more ragged than the contemporary interview sequences.

The Green Prince Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Perhaps surprisingly, The Green Prince's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix provides a much wider soundstage for sound effects and pulsating score than the also included DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix. The documentary is after all mostly comprised of Mosab and Gonen speaking, but even here the 5.1 mix offers a somewhat more nuanced accounting of the monologues (the 2.0 mix has a slightly boxy sound at times). Fidelity is fine and there are no issues of any kind to report.

The Green Prince Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bring Your Own Doc: The Green Prince (1080i; 29:21) is an interview with Nadav Schirman.


• "Son of Hamas" Israeli News Segment (480p; 7:11) is an archival piece from Israeli news about Mosab.


• Bonus Interview Extracts (1080p; 9:34)


• Storyboards (1080p)


• Trailer (1080p; 2:02)

The Green Prince Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The basic story of The Green Prince is riveting enough to carry the film through some directorial excess on the part of Nadav Schirman. Less an espionage story than a tale of two disparate people caught up in immense historical events almost against their will, The Green Prince probably could have used a somewhat more objective account in addition to the "eyewitness" testimony. That said, both Gonen and Mosab are highly articulate and fascinating people to listen to. Recommended.