The opening scene of Paradise Now involves a young Palestinian woman crossing the Israel-West Bank border.

As one soldier warily searches her bag, others have their rifles trained on her.

As she continues walking after making it through the checkpoint, a loud explosion is heard, causing everyone to bow their heads and scurry that much faster.

Welcome to Nablus.

This BBC story talks about the making of Paradise Now, about two Palestinian friends who volunteer for a suicide mission in Tel Aviv (NYT review).

The War Within, one of my favourite films from TIFF, has been released in New York. Here's the NYT review.

French film director Jean-Claude Brisseau appeared in a Paris courtroom Thursday to defend himself on charges of sexual assault and harassment. Four young actresses claim he made them masturbate as part of auditions conducted between 1996 and 2001.

The director, credited with discovering Vanessa Paradis, "denies the charges of sexual harassment and sexual assault, insisting in newspaper interviews that the 'erotic auditions', held between 1996 and 2001 for his 2002 feature Choses Secrètes, were justified artistically and 'indispensable' to his work."

I went to see Good Night and Good Luck last week, and am happy to report that it's a fine film.

To learn a bit more about the times in which it occurred, read this AP story on CTV.ca: 'Good Night' accurate but out of context: Critics.