Movie review: Seven Days in Entebbe

THIS film is the retelling of the real-life incident of Operation Entebbe, a successful hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on July 4, 1976.
Directed by Jose Padilha, who is also behind Netflix’s Narcos fame, among other relatively controversial titles, the film begins with the hijacking of an Air France plane by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO).
Originally bound for Paris, the aircraft is hijacked by four PFLP-EO members, including two – Brigitte Kulhmann (Pike) and Wilfried Bose (Bruhl) – from a German extremist group called Revolutionary Cells.
The plane is then redirected to Entebbe, where the hijackers find support from notorious Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
The hijackers’ initial plan was to exchange the passengers and crew for their pro-Palestinian allies imprisoned in Israel and four other countries. Instead, they find themselves slapped with the label of ‘terrorists’ the moment they took civilian hostages.
It’s hard to believe that the events actually took place at all. It’s amazing to note how far we have come in terms of airport security. Of course, back then, we also had Idi Amin.
To be honest, the story as seen in the film, was a bit all over the place as Padilha tried to tell the story of the Israeli commandos who were tasked to rescue the hostages, while also focusing on the two German hijackers, who had a hand in terrorising the Jewish passengers.
To add to that, he also focused on the interactions between the then Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin (Lior Ashkenazi) and defence minister Shimon Peres (Eddie Marsan).
Rabin was at first hesitant about sending in the commandos. A proponent of peace agreements, he wanted to negotiate for the release of the hostages, despite his country’s ‘no negotiating with terrorists’ policy.
All that being said, the movie doesn’t seem to take sides.
Despite being framed mainly from the perspective of the Israelis, it is still remarkably engaging while sticking to the facts.
Seven Days in Entebbe is a well-made presentation of a moment in history, and although it promotes the belief that peace in the Middle East is the best way to move forward, this is far from a breakthrough movie of the peace movement.