Every character in Bethlehem has their reasons, and that is what makes the Israel-Palestine conflict so tragic and confounding

Full Review | Jun 30, 2019

Bethlehem is compelling for its regional exposure, but a tendency for narrative velocity and plot machinations gives away the film's ultimate agenda as genre-dependent. Credit to Adler though for the necessarily unhappy ending.

Full Review | Oct 10, 2017

The moral murkiness of the Israel-Palestine conflict sets the scene for a blistering espionage thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2014

In the light of what has been happening in nearby Gaza, this small but memorable film assumes an even greater impact.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 11, 2014

Its most compelling element, however, is the relationship between informer and informant.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 7, 2014

The movie loses momentum when the strong central duo gets split up, undermining both the suspense and the emotional center of the story.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 1, 2014

Bethlehem's plot is nothing new; it's the oft-told Cain and Abel story updated for the age of suicide bombers and tactical strikes, as a tautly structured mix of melodrama and ticking-clock thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 4, 2014

Cinematographer Yaron Scharf shoots Bethlehem like a modern western, every grimace, twitch and drop of sweat playing in stark relief against an implacable landscape that has seen much spilled blood.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 4, 2014

Bethlehem negotiates a tangle of loyalties that's as complex as the Middle East itself.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 3, 2014

The politics of "Bethlehem" are complex, but the relationship at its heart is simple: a kid who needs some kind of stability in his life, even if it comes from a most unlikely, and dangerous, place.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 27, 2014

A rich, multilayered character study cleverly garbed as an action thriller, Bethlehem is a searing critique of the conflict and its toll - not just in human lives, but also in two peoples' gradual, overall loss of humanity.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 21, 2014

[The similar] 'Omar,' a recent Oscar nominee, is better directed, with assured long takes by an established talent, Hany Abu-Assad ('Paradise Now'). 'Bethlehem' has the better, cleaner script, and the best performance of the two.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 20, 2014

Because most of the characterizations are so shallow, it's hard to care too much about what happens to whom, so the action scenes become merely mechanical...

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Mar 14, 2014

Extremely suspenseful, with a terse screenplay.

Full Review | Mar 14, 2014

Might not offer new insights into a terrible conflict, but it depicts its human cost on the ground with often starling power.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Mar 13, 2014

As it is, it's a strong and eye-catching debut, but one that doesn't quite mark its ground as the next big thing in Israeli cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Mar 7, 2014

A harrowing account of how many lives can be ruined when hatred is allowed to rule.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Mar 7, 2014

Bethlehem never really comes together as a revelatory experience until an incredible, wince-inducingly savage finale that leaves a strong aftertaste.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Mar 7, 2014

In a spy story, Bethlehem insists, there are no good guys or bad guys, and no victor-just day-in, day-out deceit and betrayal, the weary work of hate.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 7, 2014

Bethlehem remains a fairly powerful experience because so much of what we see is inflamed by a violence that seems to have no end.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Mar 7, 2014