Adoration (2008) Movie Script
I remember looking out
at the two of you.
Her playing on the dock,
you watching.
I was thinking how lucky you were
to have a mom like her,
and how lucky she was
to have a boy like you.
That's what he stole from you, Simon.
That's what I can never forgive.
The thing you have to remember
about my mother
was that she was extremely trusting.
It's the only way she could have
found herself in that situation.
And that was the first thing
that must have been obvious
to the security agents.
She was completely innocent.
- You speak Hebrew?
- No.
You'll be staying in Tel Aviv?
We're going to the Holy Land.
Who's "we"?
My fianc and I.
Why isn't he traveling with you?
He had to stay for business.
You're pregnant?
People always ask
how two kids could be so different.
Your mother showed her talent
from the time she could walk,
even before.
She was always singing to herself,
around the house, in the yard.
When she picked up a violin, it was like
she already knew where to put her fingers.
Your uncle, on the other hand,
never figured out what his talent was,
except trouble and mischief.
My parents said the most ridiculous thing.
But, like, you never have proof,
and you just want some sort of proof.
That's exactly what it was like, you know.
And then it just turned out to be
really funny, so I wanted to show you guys.
I mean, he thought that his life is, like,
really dramatic...
I thought you were on crack
when you showed us that.
It's, like, why would you
waste your time videotaping...
Simon, you want to get that?
Why would Simon...
- Hi.
- That'll be $24.
Well, can't you just put it on the tab
like you usually do?
Sorry. Not anymore.
- Is it less spicy than usual?
- Why didn't he want to put it on the tab?
- Go figure.
- That's what I'm trying to do.
Well, don't.
Check the green one there.
See if it's dead. Good.
You know, if we're having problems,
you should let me know.
- Who said anything about having problems?
- With money.
With money?
What are you going to do about it?
- Help.
- How are you gonna help?
Are you gonna sell your old video games?
You know, I could get a loan or something.
Innocence is a hard thing to describe.
It's like a scent,
a thing which some people carry.
And from the moment they found the bomb,
the security officials knew
that my mother had nothing to do with it.
My father was the wanted man.
And when I heard the story
in the classroom last week,
read to us in French, it all came back.
I was raised to hate my father
for what he did to our family.
He was a monster.
But who exactly was this monster?
What would make him do that?
You have anybody meeting you in Tel Aviv?
Yes. His family.
- Whose family?
- My fianc's.
- Where does his family live?
- Over there.
- In which city?
- In Bethlehem.
- So they live in Bethlehem?
- I think so.
Although this occurred many years ago,
the story is often used to illustrate the
effectiveness of the Israeli
security measures.
She was stopped, as are all passengers
traveling on the airline,
for an interview by an agent.
Aspects of her story seemed suspicious
to this agent,
including the fact that her fianc,
the father of her unborn child,
was not traveling with her.
According to the behavioral profiles
of Israeli security,
pregnant women seldom traveled alone...
- Is this all the money you're carrying?
- Yes.
- How long you plan to stay?
- Two weeks.
- With this much money?
- His family's meeting me there.
And taking you to Bethlehem?
Where you will get married
to the man you're not traveling with?
He had business. He's meeting me there.
I just need another minute.
- I can feel the baby kicking.
- No, you can't.
Yes, I can.
There, it kicked again.
I like your imagination.
- What's wrong?
- Nothing.
Why can't you come with me?
- I told you, the ticket isn't changeable.
- Well, you changed yours.
My boss paid to change mine.
- He won't do it again.
- Why not?
It's a business decision.
- Yeah, but can't you explain?
- I've tried.
I've tried.
I don't want you to worry.
They're going to treat you like a queen.
They'll take you to the hotel.
I'll be there in two days.
- Okay.
- Okay.
I made them myself.
It was your grandmother's idea,
but she never lived to see it.
She did all the drawings.
And here's a picture of her working on them.
Mary, Joseph, the Three Wise Kings.
I still have them in a drawer somewhere.
Have I ever shown them to you?
- No.
- Your uncle helped me.
Tom was always good with his hands.
That's beautiful.
Do you put it up every year?
Yeah.
Is this your son?
We, too, believe that Jesus was a prophet.
I think the Jews believe that, as well.
- What do the Jews believe?
- That he was a prophet.
But not the Messiah,
- which is why they killed him.
- Excuse me.
This is private property.
- The road?
- You're not on the road.
I often think about what must have been
going through my father's head
as he talked my mother into his plan.
Did he have any feelings for her?
Was it difficult for him to go through with?
Or was it possible that
the only way he could talk himself
into doing it was because he loved her?
And what about me,
the unborn child resting in her belly?
Did I ever cross his mind?
When I heard the story
in this classroom last week,
all these images came flooding back to me.
And we'll get married there.
Would you like that?
- This is like a dream.
- What is?
These look so beautiful on you.
When I first told you I was pregnant,
you said you wanted nothing to do with it.
- I was so confused.
- You said I was on my own.
You are the greatest blessing in my life.
I didn't realize that.
- And now you do?
- Yes. Now I do. I do. I do.
- I will love you for always.
- For always?
- For always.
- Forever. It's not "for always. ' '
Forever.
- Why didn't you say anything?
- About what?
When she said that stuff about
the Jews killing Jesus.
- Why should I?
- So you just ask her to leave?
Yeah, I asked her to leave, Simon.
She was crazy.
Look, women like that,
they don't come to this part of town, okay?
They don't walk around at night
by themselves.
What if she moved down the street, Tom?
What if she was out taking a stroll?
Well, then she's gonna learn
that you don't go around
spouting that sort of crap.
How's she gonna learn anything?
You never engaged in a conversation
or defended a position.
Defended a position?
I asked her to get off my property.
So, look, Simon mentioned getting a loan.
- Against what?
- Against the house.
Tom, he doesn't have access
to your dad's house until he turns 25.
- You know that.
- Yeah, I know.
- Aren't you supposed to look after it?
- Look after it?
His stuff, his affairs.
You're the...
- Executor.
- Yes.
So you can't do anything to change that?
You can't help us out?
It's locked in stone. He made sure of that.
Look, if you need cash,
you can always sell your sister's violin.
She left that to Simon.
That's worth a lot of money.
Right.
You made some choices, Tom.
Taking over your sister's house in the city,
letting Simon grow up there,
I guess you must have thought
it was good to get away from your dad.
But that cost you.
Fuck it.
That's good.
It's a good idea to start the act with that.
And be careful with the ladder.
No more accidents, okay?
- So, have you heard this story before?
- No.
It just occurred to you
to write it this way?
Well, you told us to translate
as it came most naturally.
And it came to you naturally
to imagine yourself as their son?
Well, it just... It seemed cool.
You know, that's why I needed
a few minutes more to rewrite it.
- From his point of view.
- Like he was my age.
Like he was me talking about his parents.
I want you to work on this.
I want you to present it next week
to the class.
I want everyone to believe it's true,
that you're this couple's child.
Why?
As an exercise.
An exercise in what?
- I'm not sure if my French is that good.
- Then do it in English.
- But you teach French.
- And Drama.
- I'm not in Drama.
- Well, you are now.
Your uncle's an angry man.
Some people think he's stupid,
but that's not true.
When someone carries that sort of anger
around all the time, they can seem stupid.
That's the thing about anger.
It sucks up a lot of intelligence.
- Hey! Hey! What are you doing?
- You can't park here, man.
So write me a ticket!
I don't write the tickets.
You already got a ticket.
- It's $55 to get me to stop.
- Otherwise?
Otherwise, I'm gonna tow
your fucking car away.
- Lady, I promise, I'm very good at this.
- Fuck!
I'm going to pick it up,
we're gonna get out of here,
everything's gonna be good. It's easy...
Nothing, nothing,
nothing can happen to this car.
Lady, I promise.
Nothing's going to happen, okay?
Why don't you take a break? I promise.
Yeah?
I was driving it normally.
He said it was gonna be fine.
What do you want me to do?
It's not my fault. The car just died.
Well, I didn't do
anything. It's not my fault.
He's a fucking tow truck driver.
I didn't ask for his credentials.
Hop in the truck. I'll be two seconds.
We good, man?
- May I open your bag?
- Sure.
It's heavy.
Please do not leave your bags unattended.
What they found at the bottom
of my mother's bag
were concealed plastic explosives
and a detonator.
And if the bomb had gone off in mid-air,
as my father intended,
all 400 people on board that flight
would have perished.
I wouldn't be here to tell you the story.
Simon is my best friend,
and I was really confused, too,
when he was standing in front of
the classroom and he was talking,
and I didn't know anything about it.
But then...
You have to wake up and stop living
in your ignorant little box. Seriously.
I am not living in an ignorant, little box.
If he didn't want to tell me about
something like this,
then there must have been a good reason.
And if he doesn't want
to talk to us about it,
then there's a good reason for that, too.
So I think we should all
just leave him alone because...
A lot of you are wondering
why I haven't told you about this before.
The reason is, well, I've...
I only found out a few months ago myself.
I was asking my grandpa
a whole lot of questions before he died,
and I kept this on my cell as a reminder.
You have to believe me, Simon.
Your father was a killer.
If the bomb had gone off in mid-air,
as my father intended,
it would have been the most devastating
terrorist attack of its time
and my father would have gone down
in history as a mass-murderer.
Except he wouldn't have gone down
as my father.
I would have disappeared
in my mother's womb,
along with all the other passengers
on board that flight.
I wouldn't be here to tell you the story.
How's that?
Have you told anyone else about this?
- That I'm making it up? No.
- Why not?
If my friends found out it wasn't true,
it wouldn't be the same.
What wouldn't be the same?
The feeling I get when I'm performing.
I mean, some parts of it
could almost be true,
- but in a different way.
- In what way?
Things about my family.
Stuff... Stuff I haven't thought about
for a while.
So, your father planted a bomb
on your mother?
No.
Well, sort of.
- You live with your uncle?
- Yeah.
Does he know about this project?
- Are you going to tell him?
- I don't think he'd get it.
He wasn't really raised to be tolerant
about this sort of thing,
and his dad, my grandfather, he was...
He was a bit of a hard-ass.
- That could change.
- He died last spring.
Your uncle.
He might be more open-minded
than you think.
I wouldn't bet on that.
Well, there is a way to find out.
I came to apologize for yesterday.
That was wrong of me,
to embarrass a father in front of his son.
Okay.
Is he here? Your boy?
He's in his bedroom doing his homework.
I wanted to explain
something I said yesterday.
It will only take a minute of your time.
All right. Why don't you come in?
So why did you come to
this part of the city?
I was just driving around
and I saw your decorations.
You were just driving around on your own?
I do that sometimes.
When I saw this public display
of your faith, it touched me.
Why?
I feel people staring at me all the time,
wondering why I would make
such a visible statement of my belief.
Where I come from, it's completely natural.
Here, it threatens.
And that surprises you?
Yes.
Like a woman in a bikini
wouldn't threaten you people?
Us people?
Maybe people really should
stick to their own kind.
- That's how you were raised?
- Yeah, I was.
- And you're okay with that?
- Yeah, I'm just fine with it.
- Who is this?
- It's my sister.
She's a musician?
Yeah, she was. She died a few years ago.
I'm sorry. How did she die?
Car accident.
Alone?
- Excuse me?
- Was she alone in the car?
No. The driver died, too.
Was he a friend?
Look, you said there was something
you wanted to explain about yesterday.
- It was about your son.
- Well, he's not my son. He's my nephew.
I raised him after my sister died.
I'm sorry I used the word "Jew"
yesterday. That's not what I meant.
The problem is not with the Jews and Christ.
It's with the Zionists.
Thank you. Thank you for making that clear.
Are you making fun of me?
Listen, your issues with Jews or Zionists
or whoever you happen to hate,
they have nothing to do with my life
or Simon's.
- That's how you were raised.
- Yes. That's exactly how I was raised.
What must have been going through
my mother's mind as she sat in that room?
And at that point, she couldn't have been
aware of the monstrosity of the betrayal,
or what has come to be perceived
as a monstrosity.
You know, when he first found out
what had happened,
that she was pregnant with me,
he didn't want anything to do with it.
He tried to convince her to abort me.
My mother must have been crushed by this.
But then, a few weeks later,
he showed up to declare his love for her.
I want you to come with me.
Rachel, I told you before.
I'll be there in a few days,
- and my family will meet you there.
- They'll be upset.
- Why?
- I'm pregnant.
No, no. No.
A child is cause for great celebration
and joy.
They'll love you even more.
I can feel sorry for him,
but I can't feel any amount of respect or...
- Yeah.
... try to humanize anything he did.
I can only say, "Wow!
That kind of sucks that he was raised
"and he grew up
and he thought that he had to do this
- "to be enlightened. ' '
- Exactly. It's been
- implanted in his mind since the beginning.
- Or whatever he was thinking.
So that's the only way he knows to live.
So many things have been implanted
into all of our minds.
You know? Like, where did I buy this?
It's implanted in my mind to, like,
go get a good deal at, like, Nike and...
Exactly, which is our culture,
yeah, and that's...
I'm not trying to defend myself.
I'm saying that
that stuff is ingrained in our brain,
just like, you know, blowing up
stuff is ingrained in their brain.
- Exactly, but when it hurts other people...
- And it does hurt other people.
...I mean, but to a far higher degree.
Is that something that our culture does?
Yeah. So, to a far less degree,
we're harming someone, I suppose.
No. Because we're doing it in...
Why are we talking about capitalism
versus terrorism?
- I don't know.
- Well, it's just like...
I'm just saying that our minds are ingrained
with different values
that also may be wrong values,
even though you don't even realize it.
Right, but it's not blowing up 400 people
when I go and buy a hoodie.
No, it's all for personal gain.
We buy Nike because we think
we're gonna look cool.
He wanted to blow up the plane
'cause he thought he was going to get
40 virgins in the afterlife.
Exactly!
Simon's trying to humanize him.
That's fine, he's his father.
Like, I would, too,
if I was making up a story about my father.
I would try and humanize him. Like,
I would try... That's all part of the game.
We're all victims of our circumstances,
then that's the norm.
So there's nothing out of the ordinary
about how the father was raised.
We're all innocent to some degree.
Is it any worse for us to be
so over-indulgent and to let people die
because they have no money
than, like, actually killing them ourselves?
Does that mean
that we should have no opinion
- on terrorists killing innocent people?
- I'm just saying are we that much better?
Of course, we're much better!
Of course we are.
Hey, guys. You've got to check this out.
You know how my mom's a prof?
She's got this chat room
and they're talking all about Simon's story.
What do you mean?
They're talking about what happened
with your dad and everything.
How'd they find out?
Well, I told it to my mom.
- You showed it to your mom?
- Why not?
It's not like you're trying
to keep it a big secret anymore.
I mean, why wouldn't you want people
to find out?
Why is that so shocking,
so surprising to you that you feel
that you have a sense of entitlement
in this story?
I was on that plane. I was on that plane.
I don't call it a sense of entitlement.
It happens to be that...
If it is evil, whatever it was,
whatever Simon's father's intentions were,
I could feel on my own skin
once I learned about it.
I'm not sure that it was a trauma at the
time. I think we're just living it in our minds
the way Simon is trying
to live it in his mind.
Yes. I think that the
trauma happens later on,
that it grows on you as time goes by,
almost like a cancer.
Whether it's real or fictional,
as soon as we imagine it, then it becomes
something that we have to deal with.
I don't understand what's so seductive
about being a victim.
We embrace the sense of being a victim
almost to the extent that it blinds us
to the pain of others.
It's like a suit of clothes
that's so comfortable today.
His father basically ruined my life.
I mean, I've been pretty much...
Since, you know... And...
Since it happened, I've been pretty much...
My eating is completely out of control.
Has been. I've gained about 100 pounds.
And I just can't...
I can't seem to get it together
to just basically do anything.
So when I do work, I have to travel
by plane, it basically goes like this.
Like, one second after another second,
it's like, "Is it going to explode?
"Is it going to explode?
Is it going to explode?"
Second after second after second.
"Is it going to explode?
Is it going to explode?"
The next second, "Is it going to explode?"
- It's like that. I mean, you know...
- I've known David for 25 years,
and he's just a different man. Like, he's
just not the same person that he used to be.
It's not like I was such a great person
to begin with,
but I think that I am the guy
who was blown to smithereens.
- What?
- Okay? In a terrorist attack.
And I've come back from the dead
to rage against the fucking assholes
who believe that killing someone
for an idea is something that's viable!
The idea that somebody
would put their pregnant wife on a plane...
...would choose, because I'm Jewish
or because the plane was going to Israel,
to kill everyone on the flight,
I mean, that's the most sickening,
disgusting, despicable thing
I've ever heard of in my life.
But you weren't, in fact,
blown to smithereens.
- I don't understand why you say...
- Did you hear what I said?
"I am the guy
who came back from the dead!"
I am speaking for them.
The school's position is that you
encouraged him to take it as far as he could.
- As a drama exercise.
- But he wasn't in the Drama Club.
You weren't teaching him drama.
This monologue was presented
in your French class. Is that correct?
I don't understand, Sabine.
You convinced this boy
to present it as the truth.
As a way of developing it.
I just did not understand it would go
as far as it did.
He never told me
he was going to post it on the Net.
I don't know how we'd proceed with this,
Sabine.
You're saying that it's wrongful dismissal,
and yet everything the school
is claiming you did, you did.
Well, whether or not you knew
he was going to post it
and that it would get such a reaction
is not really the issue.
No, I just don't want to waste your money.
Why did you choose to read
that particular article to the students,
about the man
wanting to blow up the plane?
It's a challenging piece to translate.
It happened the month I came here.
Why?
My parents were killed in Beirut.
We couldn't stay there.
No. I meant why is it so challenging?
No. I have to go.
Yeah. This is a tow-away zone,
employee parking.
You'll have to pay his release fee.
Is this your car?
- Yes.
- Okay. It's $55.
- What for?
- To get me to stop.
And if I don't want you to stop?
- What do you mean?
- If I want you to keep doing your job.
- Yeah, my job's to tow your car away.
- Yeah.
- I understand.
- You understand? You're sure?
I'm serious. I'm going to tow it away.
- Hey! - Hey. Hey, hey, hey.
This is your car, right?
- Yes.
- Yeah? All right. Hold on. Hold on.
You change your mind, give me a call.
- Can I see?
- Yeah.
- Can I put it up now?
- Yeah.
Thank you.
- Should we make one of Daddy?
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
- It's me. I'm behind you in the taxi.
- Why?
- Where are you taking my car?
- I'm taking it to a lot.
- Is it far away?
No. It's a few minutes from here.
Is there one further away?
Yeah. I can go south to Lakeshore.
Well, I want you to take it
to the one furthest away.
- Any reason?
- I need time.
Time for what?
To think. Please. Just keep driving.
Whatever you want.
But it's going to cost you.
That's okay. I'll pay whatever it costs.
- Do you know this guy?
- No.
- So, what's this about?
- Just keep driving.
My mother would have had no idea
of the political situation
she was entering into.
She would have no idea that Bethlehem
at that time was under Israeli control.
My father was giving her no sense
of the violence that had marked that region,
the history of persecution.
My father wanted nothing more than justice,
any sort of justice for his rage,
and he was prepared to sacrifice
the two of us for this noble cause.
You know,
most people have seen this action
as the most horrifying and cynical thing
that a father and husband could inflict
on a family.
And I've come to understand
that it is not the fact.
My father was giving us a gift.
- Wow!
- Simon, if you want to think that's a gift,
you go right ahead,
but I think that's cowardly.
He has a point. He does have a point.
I believe that he has a point.
If he had given you that gift,
you wouldn't be here to say it was a gift.
What? Hannah, you don't think people
can die for a cause?
People can die for a cause, that's fine,
but don't sacrifice other people.
You do not believe that
there is such a thing as a martyr.
How would the wife have been a martyr?
She didn't know what she was dying...
What she was going to die for.
He was doing it
because he believed in something.
Yeah, but he didn't die. He wasn't...
He was doing something to better the world!
He was doing something to better the world!
And, you know,
he has a point when he does that.
I understand your need to, sort of, think
of your father as someone giving a gift,
but I really can't see how
there's any kind of justification
in that much murder
and that much destruction.
And who's on that plane?
Probably people like us.
It's not gonna be people
who are making big political decisions.
Hundreds of other lives...
I'm Daniel, and I heard about
your chat room through a colleague of mine
whose daughter goes to your school.
Now, why did Simon's father
not board the plane himself?
You've acknowledged the possibility
that the man is a coward.
You've acknowledged the possibility
that the man is a monster.
Is it possible that this man just
and quite simply
wanted to view the consequences
of his actions?
You cannot underestimate the deep,
earthly satisfaction
of viewing work you've done
while you are still alive.
It was a heinous crime!
The truth is that I don't think that
whatever happened to Simon's parents,
it's not about concepts and an ideology
and who's a martyr.
This is about that this happened
to his mother.
So why don't you all just shut up?
'Cause why don't you just imagine
what it would be like to be his mother?
You're pregnant and you think
that you have this wonderful husband
who loves you and then he's planning
on killing you and 400 other people.
His parents were killed in a car accident,
Sabine, eight years ago.
They crashed into an oncoming vehicle.
Well, this would have happened
long before that, before he was born.
Would have. So he is lying.
He's making it up for the play he's writing.
Look, I know all about his parents.
I know all the details about the accident.
What are you? Are you an inspector?
You read the police reports?
Well, that's what he's exploring
with this monologue.
And you want me to approve it?
I want you to be aware of what we are doing.
Why?
Because I would like to present it
at the Drama Festival.
No. Absolutely not. No.
You know, I have no problem with him
writing whatever he wants,
as long as it doesn't promote hatred
and as long as everyone knows
that it is fiction,
that he's making it up.
- I put this into my pocket by accident.
- By accident?
You know, I thought the idea
was to test my uncle's tolerance,
not to steal things.
Listen, I talked to the principal.
He wants people to know
that you're making this up.
Why? That's what makes it so interesting.
It's the only way he'll let you
present it at the Drama Festival.
So let's wait until then.
I don't think that's a good idea.
I do.
Keep it.
- Yeah?
- Hi. It's me again.
- I was wondering, have you had lunch?
- Excuse me?
- I was wondering if you had lunch.
- No.
- Well, what if I invite you out?
- For what?
For lunch.
- Lady...
- Sabine. My name is Sabine.
- Yeah, look...
- Is there a place you would like to go?
- Look, I'm a busy guy.
- Yeah? What makes you so busy?
- Lady, I got a lunch right here.
- So keep it for tomorrow.
- Hold on. Sir, have you had lunch?
- No.
- Are you hungry?
- I could eat.
He seems to be enjoying it.
Yeah, he does.
Does your wife pack your lunch every day?
- No. I make it myself.
- You're not married?
No. I got into the habit
when I had to make lunch for my kid.
You were married?
No. No, no, no. My nephew, my sister's kid.
I raised him after she died.
- Is the father around?
- No. They died together.
It was an accident.
How old were you?
How old was I? I was 22.
Thank you.
That's a lot of responsibility,
raising a child at that age.
- Yeah, I guess so.
- She must have trusted you.
And now you put up decorations
as a way of remembering her.
I'm sorry. It was a very stupid thing to do.
- Who are you?
- Simon's teacher, French and Drama.
- You're the one that was fired?
- That's right.
I was coming out of my lawyer's office
when we met.
Do they know about that?
Do they know that you came to my house
and stole that?
No. I'm sorry.
- Does Simon know?
- That it was me?
Of course.
We planned it together.
He doesn't think you're very open-minded.
I wanted to prove that you were.
It was important for the play
he wanted to write.
- Lady...
- I thought it would do him good and...
You're fucked up. You're fucked up.
You did that.
You got him to post that stuff about his dad
being a terrorist. You did that?
I had absolutely no idea
he would go that far.
- Well, he took it that far.
- Yes, I know.
And I'm very sorry about it,
but it was not my intention.
Please.
Do you know what you've done to that kid?
- I wouldn't have let him...
- Do you know?
Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus.
It was your grandmother's idea,
but she never lived to see it.
She loved Christmas.
Didn't she, Tommy?
Didn't she what?
I was just telling Simon
how much your mom loved Christmas.
- According to who, Dad?
- Don't you remember?
No.
What I remember, Dad,
is Christmas wasn't such a great time
'cause it meant we had to
spend more time with you.
Actually, we all kind of hated Christmas.
Don't you believe him.
They're in the drawer of my desk,
the roll-top desk.
Beautiful drawings.
You have to believe me, Simon.
I've been thinking
about the virgins and heaven,
and I'm wondering, Simon,
whether it's possible to...
To delay divine reward.
I mean, that way we can kill people
and witness our actions,
feel the satisfaction
that I was talking about before,
and then get martyred after,
get the virgins after.
I mean, what do you think,
can we get a rain check for martyrdom?
What did your father think? Did he qualify?
I can't answer your question.
I have... I have no idea if my father
ever intended to kill himself
or if the virgins even appealed to him.
He loved my mother.
And I'm sure if he got to know
the other people on that plane,
he might have liked them, too.
But that's not the point.
I think that this idea we get, that if you
get to know someone, if you humanize them,
it stops you from pulling the trigger
or setting off the bomb or whatever...
Well, you know, that's just a myth we're
taught, something we get from the movies.
When the reality might be that that's
what actually inspires an extreme action
that is actually being done to someone
that you like, or in this case, with my dad,
people that you love.
What do you want from me?
- I just want you to step into this world.
- Why?
And show these people that there are people
like you that have suffered and survived.
Not like these bullshitters who don't know
what the fuck they're talking about!
Don't say such words to me.
Come on, Bubbe. Just for me.
Show the world that there are people
like you that have survived.
- Yeah.
- Okay. Come on.
- No. I'll do it myself, darling.
- You want to get up by yourself? Go ahead.
Who cares about them?
I don't care about them.
Just go a little closer.
- Come on.
- I'll do it. What?
Show them.
Yeah, I'll show them. Yeah.
There, you see? 46224.
That's pretty emotional stuff.
Simon, you should be proud of your father.
Your father was a hero.
Your father stood for the truth, Simon.
I'm a victim, too.
I'm a victim of years of propaganda,
years of lies.
Here's my tattoo. You like that?
See that? You read that?
That's what I have written on my body.
If you had contemplated somebody other
than yourself for five stinking minutes,
face the idea that...
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Who's he?
- Some guy.
- What, is he trying to pick you up?
- Right.
Where do you keep
your mom's violin, Simon?
It's...
It's at the top of the cupboard on the back.
Yeah.
Why?
When was the last time you took it out?
When we went to see Grandpa
at the hospital last spring.
Right. The confession that never happened.
- Well, maybe there's nothing to confess.
- I wouldn't bet on that.
Do you know something that I don't?
Would my dad have done that?
Crashed the car on purpose?
I wish I could answer that, Simon. I can't.
I didn't get to know him that well.
Look, I was talking to Nick
about the loan idea. It won't work,
not until you're 25.
You know the story about this mark here?
You know it's how your parents met?
See, your mom, she went into
this repair place to get some work done.
And this guy, your dad,
he had this old...
- What do you call this part right here?
- It's a scroll.
A scroll.
He had this old scroll that he had saved,
and he told her he could put it on.
Hers was new.
I don't know the rest of the details.
I found the invoices for the job,
the drawings,
and my dad sketched it all out.
Excuse me.
I guess he wanted her to know
how it would work.
That's very detailed.
He must have liked to plan everything out.
Are you asking me if you can sell it?
Listen to me.
When they died,
I moved down here to look after you.
I wanted to keep you here.
I wanted to keep you in this house.
It was also a chance
to get away from your father.
Things are expensive here, Simon.
You should know that.
We're still carrying the mortgage
on this place.
You're going to be needing money
for university.
What do you want me to do?
Can I think about it?
Yeah, you can think about it.
I know it means a lot. I understand that.
There's something
that I don't understand, Tom.
Why would my dad
want to put a new scroll on?
I mean, it doesn't really increase
the value of the violin.
You could cut it right off
and it would be just as valuable, right?
I don't know.
There's something that my father did that
might explain his character a little better.
When he met my mom,
he was repairing violins.
That was his job.
She came in with this instrument.
Well, it's... It's a long story.
But the last time I was saying
that it wouldn't have mattered if my father
had seen the other people
on board that flight.
It wouldn't have changed his mind
if he'd recognized their humanity.
And I realized
that you never know when
or how something might affect you.
I mean, most of the times
when we find ourselves
most affected by something
is when we think it might be taken away.
And that's when you need to act.
Well, Simon,
I feel like I'm losing you right now,
because if you think
that it's easier to project
your feelings onto a thing
rather than a person,
then I'm wondering what your response is
to what you're looking at right now.
Because right now I'm just a thing on
whatever it is that you're watching me on.
But you're looking at my face
and you're looking into my eyes
and you're listening to my voice.
So whatever it is that you're reacting to,
this thing wouldn't be here if my parents
had been on the plane that day
and your father's bomb had gone off.
That's a stretch, Hannah.
I guess I've had a lot of people
responding who were on that plane.
Maybe there's part of you that wishes
your parents could be part of that club.
This community of people
who are remembering
a catastrophe that never happened.
Look, I guess the assumption here
is that our lives are precious.
But we know that's not feasible.
I mean, it's just not how nature works.
If every life was precious,
the world would not be
able to sustain itself.
We'd go forth and multiply ourselves
into extinction.
So it's just common sense.
So... So how... How do we prevent this?
There's disease, famine.
We generate wars, we plan genocides,
but occasionally someone's got to
take the matter into their own hands
and wipe out a bunch of other lives.
When the police, they showed me the tape
of him saying those things,
that was not Simon.
- No.
- That was someone else.
- He was pretending.
- Why?
Maybe he was trying to work something out.
Thank you. That was delicious.
What kind of bologna was that?
- It wasn't bologna.
- But something like that.
Yeah, it was something like that.
My shift is ending now.
That'll be $75.
Excuse me.
Any reason why you didn't tell us you were
finishing your shift
before you took my lunch?
I didn't take it.
- It was offered.
- What about deducting my meal?
- Why would I do that?
- Why would you do that? Courtesy.
Courtesy.
It was courteous of this woman
to invite you out.
It was certainly courteous of her
to offer me your lunch.
I'm not sure how courteous it is
to now demand a payment.
You know what? Don't fuck with me.
Why not? You're fucking with me.
I assumed, given the circumstance,
that it was a gift.
Now you're asking to have it back.
Since I can't give it back,
- you're extorting me for money.
- Right.
Money I earned doing my job.
- No. Do not give him the money.
- Really, it's okay. It's not a problem.
- Why don't you get the fuck out of here?
- No. What do you propose?
That I give your lunch back?
- Oh, yeah? Okay. Okay. Okay.
- Get the fuck out of here!
Get the fuck out of here! Get in the car
and get the fuck out of here!
- Don't touch me again. - I'll touch
you again. Get in the fucking car.
Get in the fucking car.
Thanks.
- Get in your fucking car!
- Big tough guy!
How long have you had this violin?
Since I was 14.
My father gave it to me.
It's quite a gift.
He must have known that you were special.
What do you mean?
A great musician.
That's what makes me special?
No.
You're special for what is in you.
That's where the music comes from.
Why did you let that go so far, Simon?
You made people remember that day
when they almost lost their lives,
and you told people that it was your dad
who tried to do it.
So whether they were sad for you
or mad at you or whatever,
why would you make people feel
all those things if it wasn't even true?
I'm unloading your car.
You haven't finished your food.
I don't want the food.
You were asking about Simon,
what it was that he was trying to work out.
Lady, we're all trying
to work things out. Okay?
Sabine. You can call me Sabine.
Lady,
you force yourself into my house,
you plan to have me tow your car.
So now I know who you are, and it's over.
You don't know who I am.
Yes, I do. Listen to me.
I was never into plays or drama in school.
I don't understand this pretending stuff.
I don't like this pretending stuff.
You're playing games with people.
That's not what I'm doing.
That's exactly what you're doing.
Simon's parents were killed
in a car accident.
- I told you that.
- The driver of the truck said
they crashed into him on purpose,
that Sami drove into the head-on collision.
How do you know his name?
Sami had a condition with his eyes.
He wasn't supposed to drive at night.
How do you know?
I was married to him
for five years until he met your sister
at his store.
He was the one who repaired her violin.
The good news is that it's authentic.
The bad news is that... Sorry.
The bad news is that
this whole piece of the violin is new.
Does it affect the sound?
No, no, no. The scroll is purely decorative.
Many instruments at this time
had a graft. Here.
The old violins had a shorter neck
and the angle of the fingerboard
was different,
and then when the new style
was introduced,
a cut was made here.
This way the scroll could be kept
while the neck was being worked on.
Can you...
I've made some drawings
on how I can reconstruct this.
With what?
I... Okay.
I... I brought this with me from Paris.
It was attached to an old violin
that was destroyed during the war.
- The same make?
- No, it's part of the same workshop.
This would make the scroll identical.
I can attach this to your violin.
Here.
Look at the drawing.
See?
It would be like this.
But in the end, it would be smooth.
You feel it? Smooth.
Your mother plays like a goddess.
How long have you been standing there?
He wants us in for dinner.
Hi.
Don't make a scene, okay?
About what?
He says anything during grace or anything...
I'm a guest. I expect
to be treated like one.
- You said they were all animals.
- No, no, no, no, no.
The people who took over the airplanes,
the people who crashed them
into the two towers, they were animals.
You said all of us.
- Was that what I said?
- Yes.
Tom, is that what I just said?
Tom, I'm asking you a question.
Is that what I told your brother-in-law?
I don't know. I don't know, Dad.
You don't know.
You're sitting across the table from me
and you don't know.
Is there a problem with your hearing, Tom?
I'll tell you why I wouldn't have said
anything like that.
Why I know I couldn't have said
anything like that,
because, contrary to what you may think,
I'm a civilized man.
And civilized people don't believe
in doing things like that.
- You always change the story.
- What story?
You are a snaky man.
Did he mean sneaky, Rachel?
Is that what your husband is calling me?
Your husband wants to know what's wrong
with raising my grandson with his culture,
and I was explaining that what's wrong is
that his culture's brought nothing
but hatred and violence into this world.
You say this after the Crusades?
- After you sent children to fight?
- What's he talking about?
- The Crusade of Children.
- Oh, yeah, yes, yes, yeah.
You're an educated man, aren't you, Sami?
What do you make of this educated man,
Tom? Does he impress you?
She was drinking a lot.
She always did in those situations.
What situations?
When Dad and him were together.
- Sami?
- Yes.
You don't use his name.
I didn't get to know him that well.
He lived with your sister for 10 years.
I wasn't around very much back then.
Where were you?
Listen.
I wish I did get to know him better, Sami.
I could tell Simon who he was.
He needs to know that.
I want him to know that.
Instead he got my father,
the same shit I was raised with.
Except your sister made sure
he wasn't raised with that,
that you looked after him,
that you raised Simon.
My son doesn't answer
because he agrees with me.
He doesn't want to seem impolite
because that's not the way he was raised.
The first thing you need to know
is that this family knows its place,
and its place isn't to tell me what I said
or didn't say.
Their place isn't to sit at my table
and ask me to explain myself.
Because the way my children were raised,
this would be considered rude.
Do you understand that?
Maybe it's normal for you to act this way,
to be heated, hot-blooded, impassioned,
rude across the family table,
but in my house this is not acceptable.
- When Rachel's mother was alive...
- Hey, Simon.
...she had a rule...
- Want to go out for a ride in my truck?
... whenever anyone got angry at this table
or anywhere...
- Okay.
... she would nod.
- You don't talk...
- Tom.
Tom, come back. Please come back now.
After she spent the whole week
making this meal,
do you like to see her drinking?
- You have no idea...
- No! No!
...what you're talking about.
- You make her do this.
She is miserable here.
You make her miserable here!
Come, please come. Tom, can you hear me?
...who's civilized!
- Tom, can you hear me?
Please, just come back!
Tom, just come back.
Please, just come back.
...you don't talk!
I pretended I couldn't hear,
that the connection was bad.
And she kept calling.
And I didn't pick up.
Why not?
Because someone
was finally giving it to him.
No one had ever stood up to him
like that, confronted him like that.
I wanted him to explode for me.
That's what I wanted Sami to do.
- Explode?
- Yes.
- How long did it last?
- I don't know.
He must have seen
that she was too drunk to drive.
I know... I know it's not my fault.
But it is your fault.
You didn't answer her call for help.
If you had driven back,
you could have taken them home.
Sami wouldn't have had to drive.
You have lived with this far too long
to deny your responsibility.
When I got back it was done.
They were gone.
I walked in, my father's screaming
that he did it on purpose.
Okay?
That he killed himself and Rachel.
That he called from the car and said
he was going to kill himself and Rachel.
- Why?
- 'Cause he was a monster.
That's what my dad always thought,
and now there's no one to disprove him.
Okay?
But Sami was not a monster.
No.
Not him.
How long have you known
that Simon was their child?
The moment I was transferred to the school.
The moment I saw his last name.
It became my secret.
Does Simon know?
No.
I watched him grow.
I always saw him as Sami's child.
Not the way he looks. His manner.
These things became
much more complicated as Simon grew.
And that's when you decided
to visit his house.
I used to drive by.
I would watch him inside,
playing with Simon, cooking.
He was a great cook.
I watched him put up
the Christmas decorations.
That was very generous of him,
coming from the upbringing he had.
I'm sorry. I should have never done that,
come to the house.
What were you expecting to find?
I don't know.
I don't.
Thanks, man.
You can sell the violin now, Tom.
You have my permission.
Remember when I asked you
about cutting the scroll off?
Well, it's something that I had to do.
It's kind of hard to describe why.
I don't think it'll
affect the value very much
since it doesn't change the sound.
I hope it'll pay for all the things
that we'll need.
I'm going to the Holy Land.
It's all the Holy Land.
I can feel the baby kicking.
Grandpa, I really need to know
what happened that night.
He was going to kill her.
- He called and said...
- He could have called to apologize
or to find out if I was back.
Or it could have been my mother.
Would you like to come in?
For coffee?
Must be strange
to see those wedding photographs.
He never said he wasn't married.
It's part of the reason
my dad was so suspicious of him.
- If he could do that to me...
- That sort of idea, yeah.
Except your father did not know me.
If he did, maybe he would understand
what Sami was running away from.
What do you mean?
- I have strange ways.
- Yes, you do.
You thought I was crazy. You thought...
You told Simon that people dressed like me
don't come to your part of town.
- You had him record the conversation?
- He told me about it.
You were testing me to see if I'd explode.
Yeah?
- And you refused to let that happen.
- Yeah. Not in front of Simon.
And if Simon wasn't there,
would you have beaten me?
- Like you attacked that man today?
- He was going to vomit on us.
What if I did that now?
Hey. Stop it.
Do you think I would do that?
- Vomit on my own rug to prove a point?
- I'm not sure.
You must think I'm capable of anything.
Isn't it best to stay away
from people like me?
Maybe.
Except people like me are everywhere,
people who are capable of anything,
capable of seeking justice, seeking revenge.
- For what?
- I lost my entire family in Lebanon.
One day I came back home from school
and they were wiped out, just like that.
Sami was my salvation.
He provided me
with something I could believe in.
I don't know what you expect from us.
I would like to be a part of Simon's life.
Why?
He's all I have.
I was never upset at my husband
for leaving me.
I can't explain why.
Your sister was from such a different world,
and she gave him a child.
Sami wanted a child.
You're going to have to pay for the ticket.
The tow was free.
Grandpa.
I really need to know
what happened that night.
He was going to kill her.
- He called and said...
- He could have called to apologize
or to find out if I was back.
It could have been my mother calling.
You have to believe me, Simon.
Your father was a killer.
Why didn't you tell me about this before?
I didn't think it was appropriate.
Yeah, good call.
He looked happy.
He was.
We were happy.
And then what happened?
Then he met your mom.
You let him go.
No.
I never let him go.
at the two of you.
Her playing on the dock,
you watching.
I was thinking how lucky you were
to have a mom like her,
and how lucky she was
to have a boy like you.
That's what he stole from you, Simon.
That's what I can never forgive.
The thing you have to remember
about my mother
was that she was extremely trusting.
It's the only way she could have
found herself in that situation.
And that was the first thing
that must have been obvious
to the security agents.
She was completely innocent.
- You speak Hebrew?
- No.
You'll be staying in Tel Aviv?
We're going to the Holy Land.
Who's "we"?
My fianc and I.
Why isn't he traveling with you?
He had to stay for business.
You're pregnant?
People always ask
how two kids could be so different.
Your mother showed her talent
from the time she could walk,
even before.
She was always singing to herself,
around the house, in the yard.
When she picked up a violin, it was like
she already knew where to put her fingers.
Your uncle, on the other hand,
never figured out what his talent was,
except trouble and mischief.
My parents said the most ridiculous thing.
But, like, you never have proof,
and you just want some sort of proof.
That's exactly what it was like, you know.
And then it just turned out to be
really funny, so I wanted to show you guys.
I mean, he thought that his life is, like,
really dramatic...
I thought you were on crack
when you showed us that.
It's, like, why would you
waste your time videotaping...
Simon, you want to get that?
Why would Simon...
- Hi.
- That'll be $24.
Well, can't you just put it on the tab
like you usually do?
Sorry. Not anymore.
- Is it less spicy than usual?
- Why didn't he want to put it on the tab?
- Go figure.
- That's what I'm trying to do.
Well, don't.
Check the green one there.
See if it's dead. Good.
You know, if we're having problems,
you should let me know.
- Who said anything about having problems?
- With money.
With money?
What are you going to do about it?
- Help.
- How are you gonna help?
Are you gonna sell your old video games?
You know, I could get a loan or something.
Innocence is a hard thing to describe.
It's like a scent,
a thing which some people carry.
And from the moment they found the bomb,
the security officials knew
that my mother had nothing to do with it.
My father was the wanted man.
And when I heard the story
in the classroom last week,
read to us in French, it all came back.
I was raised to hate my father
for what he did to our family.
He was a monster.
But who exactly was this monster?
What would make him do that?
You have anybody meeting you in Tel Aviv?
Yes. His family.
- Whose family?
- My fianc's.
- Where does his family live?
- Over there.
- In which city?
- In Bethlehem.
- So they live in Bethlehem?
- I think so.
Although this occurred many years ago,
the story is often used to illustrate the
effectiveness of the Israeli
security measures.
She was stopped, as are all passengers
traveling on the airline,
for an interview by an agent.
Aspects of her story seemed suspicious
to this agent,
including the fact that her fianc,
the father of her unborn child,
was not traveling with her.
According to the behavioral profiles
of Israeli security,
pregnant women seldom traveled alone...
- Is this all the money you're carrying?
- Yes.
- How long you plan to stay?
- Two weeks.
- With this much money?
- His family's meeting me there.
And taking you to Bethlehem?
Where you will get married
to the man you're not traveling with?
He had business. He's meeting me there.
I just need another minute.
- I can feel the baby kicking.
- No, you can't.
Yes, I can.
There, it kicked again.
I like your imagination.
- What's wrong?
- Nothing.
Why can't you come with me?
- I told you, the ticket isn't changeable.
- Well, you changed yours.
My boss paid to change mine.
- He won't do it again.
- Why not?
It's a business decision.
- Yeah, but can't you explain?
- I've tried.
I've tried.
I don't want you to worry.
They're going to treat you like a queen.
They'll take you to the hotel.
I'll be there in two days.
- Okay.
- Okay.
I made them myself.
It was your grandmother's idea,
but she never lived to see it.
She did all the drawings.
And here's a picture of her working on them.
Mary, Joseph, the Three Wise Kings.
I still have them in a drawer somewhere.
Have I ever shown them to you?
- No.
- Your uncle helped me.
Tom was always good with his hands.
That's beautiful.
Do you put it up every year?
Yeah.
Is this your son?
We, too, believe that Jesus was a prophet.
I think the Jews believe that, as well.
- What do the Jews believe?
- That he was a prophet.
But not the Messiah,
- which is why they killed him.
- Excuse me.
This is private property.
- The road?
- You're not on the road.
I often think about what must have been
going through my father's head
as he talked my mother into his plan.
Did he have any feelings for her?
Was it difficult for him to go through with?
Or was it possible that
the only way he could talk himself
into doing it was because he loved her?
And what about me,
the unborn child resting in her belly?
Did I ever cross his mind?
When I heard the story
in this classroom last week,
all these images came flooding back to me.
And we'll get married there.
Would you like that?
- This is like a dream.
- What is?
These look so beautiful on you.
When I first told you I was pregnant,
you said you wanted nothing to do with it.
- I was so confused.
- You said I was on my own.
You are the greatest blessing in my life.
I didn't realize that.
- And now you do?
- Yes. Now I do. I do. I do.
- I will love you for always.
- For always?
- For always.
- Forever. It's not "for always. ' '
Forever.
- Why didn't you say anything?
- About what?
When she said that stuff about
the Jews killing Jesus.
- Why should I?
- So you just ask her to leave?
Yeah, I asked her to leave, Simon.
She was crazy.
Look, women like that,
they don't come to this part of town, okay?
They don't walk around at night
by themselves.
What if she moved down the street, Tom?
What if she was out taking a stroll?
Well, then she's gonna learn
that you don't go around
spouting that sort of crap.
How's she gonna learn anything?
You never engaged in a conversation
or defended a position.
Defended a position?
I asked her to get off my property.
So, look, Simon mentioned getting a loan.
- Against what?
- Against the house.
Tom, he doesn't have access
to your dad's house until he turns 25.
- You know that.
- Yeah, I know.
- Aren't you supposed to look after it?
- Look after it?
His stuff, his affairs.
You're the...
- Executor.
- Yes.
So you can't do anything to change that?
You can't help us out?
It's locked in stone. He made sure of that.
Look, if you need cash,
you can always sell your sister's violin.
She left that to Simon.
That's worth a lot of money.
Right.
You made some choices, Tom.
Taking over your sister's house in the city,
letting Simon grow up there,
I guess you must have thought
it was good to get away from your dad.
But that cost you.
Fuck it.
That's good.
It's a good idea to start the act with that.
And be careful with the ladder.
No more accidents, okay?
- So, have you heard this story before?
- No.
It just occurred to you
to write it this way?
Well, you told us to translate
as it came most naturally.
And it came to you naturally
to imagine yourself as their son?
Well, it just... It seemed cool.
You know, that's why I needed
a few minutes more to rewrite it.
- From his point of view.
- Like he was my age.
Like he was me talking about his parents.
I want you to work on this.
I want you to present it next week
to the class.
I want everyone to believe it's true,
that you're this couple's child.
Why?
As an exercise.
An exercise in what?
- I'm not sure if my French is that good.
- Then do it in English.
- But you teach French.
- And Drama.
- I'm not in Drama.
- Well, you are now.
Your uncle's an angry man.
Some people think he's stupid,
but that's not true.
When someone carries that sort of anger
around all the time, they can seem stupid.
That's the thing about anger.
It sucks up a lot of intelligence.
- Hey! Hey! What are you doing?
- You can't park here, man.
So write me a ticket!
I don't write the tickets.
You already got a ticket.
- It's $55 to get me to stop.
- Otherwise?
Otherwise, I'm gonna tow
your fucking car away.
- Lady, I promise, I'm very good at this.
- Fuck!
I'm going to pick it up,
we're gonna get out of here,
everything's gonna be good. It's easy...
Nothing, nothing,
nothing can happen to this car.
Lady, I promise.
Nothing's going to happen, okay?
Why don't you take a break? I promise.
Yeah?
I was driving it normally.
He said it was gonna be fine.
What do you want me to do?
It's not my fault. The car just died.
Well, I didn't do
anything. It's not my fault.
He's a fucking tow truck driver.
I didn't ask for his credentials.
Hop in the truck. I'll be two seconds.
We good, man?
- May I open your bag?
- Sure.
It's heavy.
Please do not leave your bags unattended.
What they found at the bottom
of my mother's bag
were concealed plastic explosives
and a detonator.
And if the bomb had gone off in mid-air,
as my father intended,
all 400 people on board that flight
would have perished.
I wouldn't be here to tell you the story.
Simon is my best friend,
and I was really confused, too,
when he was standing in front of
the classroom and he was talking,
and I didn't know anything about it.
But then...
You have to wake up and stop living
in your ignorant little box. Seriously.
I am not living in an ignorant, little box.
If he didn't want to tell me about
something like this,
then there must have been a good reason.
And if he doesn't want
to talk to us about it,
then there's a good reason for that, too.
So I think we should all
just leave him alone because...
A lot of you are wondering
why I haven't told you about this before.
The reason is, well, I've...
I only found out a few months ago myself.
I was asking my grandpa
a whole lot of questions before he died,
and I kept this on my cell as a reminder.
You have to believe me, Simon.
Your father was a killer.
If the bomb had gone off in mid-air,
as my father intended,
it would have been the most devastating
terrorist attack of its time
and my father would have gone down
in history as a mass-murderer.
Except he wouldn't have gone down
as my father.
I would have disappeared
in my mother's womb,
along with all the other passengers
on board that flight.
I wouldn't be here to tell you the story.
How's that?
Have you told anyone else about this?
- That I'm making it up? No.
- Why not?
If my friends found out it wasn't true,
it wouldn't be the same.
What wouldn't be the same?
The feeling I get when I'm performing.
I mean, some parts of it
could almost be true,
- but in a different way.
- In what way?
Things about my family.
Stuff... Stuff I haven't thought about
for a while.
So, your father planted a bomb
on your mother?
No.
Well, sort of.
- You live with your uncle?
- Yeah.
Does he know about this project?
- Are you going to tell him?
- I don't think he'd get it.
He wasn't really raised to be tolerant
about this sort of thing,
and his dad, my grandfather, he was...
He was a bit of a hard-ass.
- That could change.
- He died last spring.
Your uncle.
He might be more open-minded
than you think.
I wouldn't bet on that.
Well, there is a way to find out.
I came to apologize for yesterday.
That was wrong of me,
to embarrass a father in front of his son.
Okay.
Is he here? Your boy?
He's in his bedroom doing his homework.
I wanted to explain
something I said yesterday.
It will only take a minute of your time.
All right. Why don't you come in?
So why did you come to
this part of the city?
I was just driving around
and I saw your decorations.
You were just driving around on your own?
I do that sometimes.
When I saw this public display
of your faith, it touched me.
Why?
I feel people staring at me all the time,
wondering why I would make
such a visible statement of my belief.
Where I come from, it's completely natural.
Here, it threatens.
And that surprises you?
Yes.
Like a woman in a bikini
wouldn't threaten you people?
Us people?
Maybe people really should
stick to their own kind.
- That's how you were raised?
- Yeah, I was.
- And you're okay with that?
- Yeah, I'm just fine with it.
- Who is this?
- It's my sister.
She's a musician?
Yeah, she was. She died a few years ago.
I'm sorry. How did she die?
Car accident.
Alone?
- Excuse me?
- Was she alone in the car?
No. The driver died, too.
Was he a friend?
Look, you said there was something
you wanted to explain about yesterday.
- It was about your son.
- Well, he's not my son. He's my nephew.
I raised him after my sister died.
I'm sorry I used the word "Jew"
yesterday. That's not what I meant.
The problem is not with the Jews and Christ.
It's with the Zionists.
Thank you. Thank you for making that clear.
Are you making fun of me?
Listen, your issues with Jews or Zionists
or whoever you happen to hate,
they have nothing to do with my life
or Simon's.
- That's how you were raised.
- Yes. That's exactly how I was raised.
What must have been going through
my mother's mind as she sat in that room?
And at that point, she couldn't have been
aware of the monstrosity of the betrayal,
or what has come to be perceived
as a monstrosity.
You know, when he first found out
what had happened,
that she was pregnant with me,
he didn't want anything to do with it.
He tried to convince her to abort me.
My mother must have been crushed by this.
But then, a few weeks later,
he showed up to declare his love for her.
I want you to come with me.
Rachel, I told you before.
I'll be there in a few days,
- and my family will meet you there.
- They'll be upset.
- Why?
- I'm pregnant.
No, no. No.
A child is cause for great celebration
and joy.
They'll love you even more.
I can feel sorry for him,
but I can't feel any amount of respect or...
- Yeah.
... try to humanize anything he did.
I can only say, "Wow!
That kind of sucks that he was raised
"and he grew up
and he thought that he had to do this
- "to be enlightened. ' '
- Exactly. It's been
- implanted in his mind since the beginning.
- Or whatever he was thinking.
So that's the only way he knows to live.
So many things have been implanted
into all of our minds.
You know? Like, where did I buy this?
It's implanted in my mind to, like,
go get a good deal at, like, Nike and...
Exactly, which is our culture,
yeah, and that's...
I'm not trying to defend myself.
I'm saying that
that stuff is ingrained in our brain,
just like, you know, blowing up
stuff is ingrained in their brain.
- Exactly, but when it hurts other people...
- And it does hurt other people.
...I mean, but to a far higher degree.
Is that something that our culture does?
Yeah. So, to a far less degree,
we're harming someone, I suppose.
No. Because we're doing it in...
Why are we talking about capitalism
versus terrorism?
- I don't know.
- Well, it's just like...
I'm just saying that our minds are ingrained
with different values
that also may be wrong values,
even though you don't even realize it.
Right, but it's not blowing up 400 people
when I go and buy a hoodie.
No, it's all for personal gain.
We buy Nike because we think
we're gonna look cool.
He wanted to blow up the plane
'cause he thought he was going to get
40 virgins in the afterlife.
Exactly!
Simon's trying to humanize him.
That's fine, he's his father.
Like, I would, too,
if I was making up a story about my father.
I would try and humanize him. Like,
I would try... That's all part of the game.
We're all victims of our circumstances,
then that's the norm.
So there's nothing out of the ordinary
about how the father was raised.
We're all innocent to some degree.
Is it any worse for us to be
so over-indulgent and to let people die
because they have no money
than, like, actually killing them ourselves?
Does that mean
that we should have no opinion
- on terrorists killing innocent people?
- I'm just saying are we that much better?
Of course, we're much better!
Of course we are.
Hey, guys. You've got to check this out.
You know how my mom's a prof?
She's got this chat room
and they're talking all about Simon's story.
What do you mean?
They're talking about what happened
with your dad and everything.
How'd they find out?
Well, I told it to my mom.
- You showed it to your mom?
- Why not?
It's not like you're trying
to keep it a big secret anymore.
I mean, why wouldn't you want people
to find out?
Why is that so shocking,
so surprising to you that you feel
that you have a sense of entitlement
in this story?
I was on that plane. I was on that plane.
I don't call it a sense of entitlement.
It happens to be that...
If it is evil, whatever it was,
whatever Simon's father's intentions were,
I could feel on my own skin
once I learned about it.
I'm not sure that it was a trauma at the
time. I think we're just living it in our minds
the way Simon is trying
to live it in his mind.
Yes. I think that the
trauma happens later on,
that it grows on you as time goes by,
almost like a cancer.
Whether it's real or fictional,
as soon as we imagine it, then it becomes
something that we have to deal with.
I don't understand what's so seductive
about being a victim.
We embrace the sense of being a victim
almost to the extent that it blinds us
to the pain of others.
It's like a suit of clothes
that's so comfortable today.
His father basically ruined my life.
I mean, I've been pretty much...
Since, you know... And...
Since it happened, I've been pretty much...
My eating is completely out of control.
Has been. I've gained about 100 pounds.
And I just can't...
I can't seem to get it together
to just basically do anything.
So when I do work, I have to travel
by plane, it basically goes like this.
Like, one second after another second,
it's like, "Is it going to explode?
"Is it going to explode?
Is it going to explode?"
Second after second after second.
"Is it going to explode?
Is it going to explode?"
The next second, "Is it going to explode?"
- It's like that. I mean, you know...
- I've known David for 25 years,
and he's just a different man. Like, he's
just not the same person that he used to be.
It's not like I was such a great person
to begin with,
but I think that I am the guy
who was blown to smithereens.
- What?
- Okay? In a terrorist attack.
And I've come back from the dead
to rage against the fucking assholes
who believe that killing someone
for an idea is something that's viable!
The idea that somebody
would put their pregnant wife on a plane...
...would choose, because I'm Jewish
or because the plane was going to Israel,
to kill everyone on the flight,
I mean, that's the most sickening,
disgusting, despicable thing
I've ever heard of in my life.
But you weren't, in fact,
blown to smithereens.
- I don't understand why you say...
- Did you hear what I said?
"I am the guy
who came back from the dead!"
I am speaking for them.
The school's position is that you
encouraged him to take it as far as he could.
- As a drama exercise.
- But he wasn't in the Drama Club.
You weren't teaching him drama.
This monologue was presented
in your French class. Is that correct?
I don't understand, Sabine.
You convinced this boy
to present it as the truth.
As a way of developing it.
I just did not understand it would go
as far as it did.
He never told me
he was going to post it on the Net.
I don't know how we'd proceed with this,
Sabine.
You're saying that it's wrongful dismissal,
and yet everything the school
is claiming you did, you did.
Well, whether or not you knew
he was going to post it
and that it would get such a reaction
is not really the issue.
No, I just don't want to waste your money.
Why did you choose to read
that particular article to the students,
about the man
wanting to blow up the plane?
It's a challenging piece to translate.
It happened the month I came here.
Why?
My parents were killed in Beirut.
We couldn't stay there.
No. I meant why is it so challenging?
No. I have to go.
Yeah. This is a tow-away zone,
employee parking.
You'll have to pay his release fee.
Is this your car?
- Yes.
- Okay. It's $55.
- What for?
- To get me to stop.
And if I don't want you to stop?
- What do you mean?
- If I want you to keep doing your job.
- Yeah, my job's to tow your car away.
- Yeah.
- I understand.
- You understand? You're sure?
I'm serious. I'm going to tow it away.
- Hey! - Hey. Hey, hey, hey.
This is your car, right?
- Yes.
- Yeah? All right. Hold on. Hold on.
You change your mind, give me a call.
- Can I see?
- Yeah.
- Can I put it up now?
- Yeah.
Thank you.
- Should we make one of Daddy?
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
- It's me. I'm behind you in the taxi.
- Why?
- Where are you taking my car?
- I'm taking it to a lot.
- Is it far away?
No. It's a few minutes from here.
Is there one further away?
Yeah. I can go south to Lakeshore.
Well, I want you to take it
to the one furthest away.
- Any reason?
- I need time.
Time for what?
To think. Please. Just keep driving.
Whatever you want.
But it's going to cost you.
That's okay. I'll pay whatever it costs.
- Do you know this guy?
- No.
- So, what's this about?
- Just keep driving.
My mother would have had no idea
of the political situation
she was entering into.
She would have no idea that Bethlehem
at that time was under Israeli control.
My father was giving her no sense
of the violence that had marked that region,
the history of persecution.
My father wanted nothing more than justice,
any sort of justice for his rage,
and he was prepared to sacrifice
the two of us for this noble cause.
You know,
most people have seen this action
as the most horrifying and cynical thing
that a father and husband could inflict
on a family.
And I've come to understand
that it is not the fact.
My father was giving us a gift.
- Wow!
- Simon, if you want to think that's a gift,
you go right ahead,
but I think that's cowardly.
He has a point. He does have a point.
I believe that he has a point.
If he had given you that gift,
you wouldn't be here to say it was a gift.
What? Hannah, you don't think people
can die for a cause?
People can die for a cause, that's fine,
but don't sacrifice other people.
You do not believe that
there is such a thing as a martyr.
How would the wife have been a martyr?
She didn't know what she was dying...
What she was going to die for.
He was doing it
because he believed in something.
Yeah, but he didn't die. He wasn't...
He was doing something to better the world!
He was doing something to better the world!
And, you know,
he has a point when he does that.
I understand your need to, sort of, think
of your father as someone giving a gift,
but I really can't see how
there's any kind of justification
in that much murder
and that much destruction.
And who's on that plane?
Probably people like us.
It's not gonna be people
who are making big political decisions.
Hundreds of other lives...
I'm Daniel, and I heard about
your chat room through a colleague of mine
whose daughter goes to your school.
Now, why did Simon's father
not board the plane himself?
You've acknowledged the possibility
that the man is a coward.
You've acknowledged the possibility
that the man is a monster.
Is it possible that this man just
and quite simply
wanted to view the consequences
of his actions?
You cannot underestimate the deep,
earthly satisfaction
of viewing work you've done
while you are still alive.
It was a heinous crime!
The truth is that I don't think that
whatever happened to Simon's parents,
it's not about concepts and an ideology
and who's a martyr.
This is about that this happened
to his mother.
So why don't you all just shut up?
'Cause why don't you just imagine
what it would be like to be his mother?
You're pregnant and you think
that you have this wonderful husband
who loves you and then he's planning
on killing you and 400 other people.
His parents were killed in a car accident,
Sabine, eight years ago.
They crashed into an oncoming vehicle.
Well, this would have happened
long before that, before he was born.
Would have. So he is lying.
He's making it up for the play he's writing.
Look, I know all about his parents.
I know all the details about the accident.
What are you? Are you an inspector?
You read the police reports?
Well, that's what he's exploring
with this monologue.
And you want me to approve it?
I want you to be aware of what we are doing.
Why?
Because I would like to present it
at the Drama Festival.
No. Absolutely not. No.
You know, I have no problem with him
writing whatever he wants,
as long as it doesn't promote hatred
and as long as everyone knows
that it is fiction,
that he's making it up.
- I put this into my pocket by accident.
- By accident?
You know, I thought the idea
was to test my uncle's tolerance,
not to steal things.
Listen, I talked to the principal.
He wants people to know
that you're making this up.
Why? That's what makes it so interesting.
It's the only way he'll let you
present it at the Drama Festival.
So let's wait until then.
I don't think that's a good idea.
I do.
Keep it.
- Yeah?
- Hi. It's me again.
- I was wondering, have you had lunch?
- Excuse me?
- I was wondering if you had lunch.
- No.
- Well, what if I invite you out?
- For what?
For lunch.
- Lady...
- Sabine. My name is Sabine.
- Yeah, look...
- Is there a place you would like to go?
- Look, I'm a busy guy.
- Yeah? What makes you so busy?
- Lady, I got a lunch right here.
- So keep it for tomorrow.
- Hold on. Sir, have you had lunch?
- No.
- Are you hungry?
- I could eat.
He seems to be enjoying it.
Yeah, he does.
Does your wife pack your lunch every day?
- No. I make it myself.
- You're not married?
No. I got into the habit
when I had to make lunch for my kid.
You were married?
No. No, no, no. My nephew, my sister's kid.
I raised him after she died.
- Is the father around?
- No. They died together.
It was an accident.
How old were you?
How old was I? I was 22.
Thank you.
That's a lot of responsibility,
raising a child at that age.
- Yeah, I guess so.
- She must have trusted you.
And now you put up decorations
as a way of remembering her.
I'm sorry. It was a very stupid thing to do.
- Who are you?
- Simon's teacher, French and Drama.
- You're the one that was fired?
- That's right.
I was coming out of my lawyer's office
when we met.
Do they know about that?
Do they know that you came to my house
and stole that?
No. I'm sorry.
- Does Simon know?
- That it was me?
Of course.
We planned it together.
He doesn't think you're very open-minded.
I wanted to prove that you were.
It was important for the play
he wanted to write.
- Lady...
- I thought it would do him good and...
You're fucked up. You're fucked up.
You did that.
You got him to post that stuff about his dad
being a terrorist. You did that?
I had absolutely no idea
he would go that far.
- Well, he took it that far.
- Yes, I know.
And I'm very sorry about it,
but it was not my intention.
Please.
Do you know what you've done to that kid?
- I wouldn't have let him...
- Do you know?
Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus.
It was your grandmother's idea,
but she never lived to see it.
She loved Christmas.
Didn't she, Tommy?
Didn't she what?
I was just telling Simon
how much your mom loved Christmas.
- According to who, Dad?
- Don't you remember?
No.
What I remember, Dad,
is Christmas wasn't such a great time
'cause it meant we had to
spend more time with you.
Actually, we all kind of hated Christmas.
Don't you believe him.
They're in the drawer of my desk,
the roll-top desk.
Beautiful drawings.
You have to believe me, Simon.
I've been thinking
about the virgins and heaven,
and I'm wondering, Simon,
whether it's possible to...
To delay divine reward.
I mean, that way we can kill people
and witness our actions,
feel the satisfaction
that I was talking about before,
and then get martyred after,
get the virgins after.
I mean, what do you think,
can we get a rain check for martyrdom?
What did your father think? Did he qualify?
I can't answer your question.
I have... I have no idea if my father
ever intended to kill himself
or if the virgins even appealed to him.
He loved my mother.
And I'm sure if he got to know
the other people on that plane,
he might have liked them, too.
But that's not the point.
I think that this idea we get, that if you
get to know someone, if you humanize them,
it stops you from pulling the trigger
or setting off the bomb or whatever...
Well, you know, that's just a myth we're
taught, something we get from the movies.
When the reality might be that that's
what actually inspires an extreme action
that is actually being done to someone
that you like, or in this case, with my dad,
people that you love.
What do you want from me?
- I just want you to step into this world.
- Why?
And show these people that there are people
like you that have suffered and survived.
Not like these bullshitters who don't know
what the fuck they're talking about!
Don't say such words to me.
Come on, Bubbe. Just for me.
Show the world that there are people
like you that have survived.
- Yeah.
- Okay. Come on.
- No. I'll do it myself, darling.
- You want to get up by yourself? Go ahead.
Who cares about them?
I don't care about them.
Just go a little closer.
- Come on.
- I'll do it. What?
Show them.
Yeah, I'll show them. Yeah.
There, you see? 46224.
That's pretty emotional stuff.
Simon, you should be proud of your father.
Your father was a hero.
Your father stood for the truth, Simon.
I'm a victim, too.
I'm a victim of years of propaganda,
years of lies.
Here's my tattoo. You like that?
See that? You read that?
That's what I have written on my body.
If you had contemplated somebody other
than yourself for five stinking minutes,
face the idea that...
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Who's he?
- Some guy.
- What, is he trying to pick you up?
- Right.
Where do you keep
your mom's violin, Simon?
It's...
It's at the top of the cupboard on the back.
Yeah.
Why?
When was the last time you took it out?
When we went to see Grandpa
at the hospital last spring.
Right. The confession that never happened.
- Well, maybe there's nothing to confess.
- I wouldn't bet on that.
Do you know something that I don't?
Would my dad have done that?
Crashed the car on purpose?
I wish I could answer that, Simon. I can't.
I didn't get to know him that well.
Look, I was talking to Nick
about the loan idea. It won't work,
not until you're 25.
You know the story about this mark here?
You know it's how your parents met?
See, your mom, she went into
this repair place to get some work done.
And this guy, your dad,
he had this old...
- What do you call this part right here?
- It's a scroll.
A scroll.
He had this old scroll that he had saved,
and he told her he could put it on.
Hers was new.
I don't know the rest of the details.
I found the invoices for the job,
the drawings,
and my dad sketched it all out.
Excuse me.
I guess he wanted her to know
how it would work.
That's very detailed.
He must have liked to plan everything out.
Are you asking me if you can sell it?
Listen to me.
When they died,
I moved down here to look after you.
I wanted to keep you here.
I wanted to keep you in this house.
It was also a chance
to get away from your father.
Things are expensive here, Simon.
You should know that.
We're still carrying the mortgage
on this place.
You're going to be needing money
for university.
What do you want me to do?
Can I think about it?
Yeah, you can think about it.
I know it means a lot. I understand that.
There's something
that I don't understand, Tom.
Why would my dad
want to put a new scroll on?
I mean, it doesn't really increase
the value of the violin.
You could cut it right off
and it would be just as valuable, right?
I don't know.
There's something that my father did that
might explain his character a little better.
When he met my mom,
he was repairing violins.
That was his job.
She came in with this instrument.
Well, it's... It's a long story.
But the last time I was saying
that it wouldn't have mattered if my father
had seen the other people
on board that flight.
It wouldn't have changed his mind
if he'd recognized their humanity.
And I realized
that you never know when
or how something might affect you.
I mean, most of the times
when we find ourselves
most affected by something
is when we think it might be taken away.
And that's when you need to act.
Well, Simon,
I feel like I'm losing you right now,
because if you think
that it's easier to project
your feelings onto a thing
rather than a person,
then I'm wondering what your response is
to what you're looking at right now.
Because right now I'm just a thing on
whatever it is that you're watching me on.
But you're looking at my face
and you're looking into my eyes
and you're listening to my voice.
So whatever it is that you're reacting to,
this thing wouldn't be here if my parents
had been on the plane that day
and your father's bomb had gone off.
That's a stretch, Hannah.
I guess I've had a lot of people
responding who were on that plane.
Maybe there's part of you that wishes
your parents could be part of that club.
This community of people
who are remembering
a catastrophe that never happened.
Look, I guess the assumption here
is that our lives are precious.
But we know that's not feasible.
I mean, it's just not how nature works.
If every life was precious,
the world would not be
able to sustain itself.
We'd go forth and multiply ourselves
into extinction.
So it's just common sense.
So... So how... How do we prevent this?
There's disease, famine.
We generate wars, we plan genocides,
but occasionally someone's got to
take the matter into their own hands
and wipe out a bunch of other lives.
When the police, they showed me the tape
of him saying those things,
that was not Simon.
- No.
- That was someone else.
- He was pretending.
- Why?
Maybe he was trying to work something out.
Thank you. That was delicious.
What kind of bologna was that?
- It wasn't bologna.
- But something like that.
Yeah, it was something like that.
My shift is ending now.
That'll be $75.
Excuse me.
Any reason why you didn't tell us you were
finishing your shift
before you took my lunch?
I didn't take it.
- It was offered.
- What about deducting my meal?
- Why would I do that?
- Why would you do that? Courtesy.
Courtesy.
It was courteous of this woman
to invite you out.
It was certainly courteous of her
to offer me your lunch.
I'm not sure how courteous it is
to now demand a payment.
You know what? Don't fuck with me.
Why not? You're fucking with me.
I assumed, given the circumstance,
that it was a gift.
Now you're asking to have it back.
Since I can't give it back,
- you're extorting me for money.
- Right.
Money I earned doing my job.
- No. Do not give him the money.
- Really, it's okay. It's not a problem.
- Why don't you get the fuck out of here?
- No. What do you propose?
That I give your lunch back?
- Oh, yeah? Okay. Okay. Okay.
- Get the fuck out of here!
Get the fuck out of here! Get in the car
and get the fuck out of here!
- Don't touch me again. - I'll touch
you again. Get in the fucking car.
Get in the fucking car.
Thanks.
- Get in your fucking car!
- Big tough guy!
How long have you had this violin?
Since I was 14.
My father gave it to me.
It's quite a gift.
He must have known that you were special.
What do you mean?
A great musician.
That's what makes me special?
No.
You're special for what is in you.
That's where the music comes from.
Why did you let that go so far, Simon?
You made people remember that day
when they almost lost their lives,
and you told people that it was your dad
who tried to do it.
So whether they were sad for you
or mad at you or whatever,
why would you make people feel
all those things if it wasn't even true?
I'm unloading your car.
You haven't finished your food.
I don't want the food.
You were asking about Simon,
what it was that he was trying to work out.
Lady, we're all trying
to work things out. Okay?
Sabine. You can call me Sabine.
Lady,
you force yourself into my house,
you plan to have me tow your car.
So now I know who you are, and it's over.
You don't know who I am.
Yes, I do. Listen to me.
I was never into plays or drama in school.
I don't understand this pretending stuff.
I don't like this pretending stuff.
You're playing games with people.
That's not what I'm doing.
That's exactly what you're doing.
Simon's parents were killed
in a car accident.
- I told you that.
- The driver of the truck said
they crashed into him on purpose,
that Sami drove into the head-on collision.
How do you know his name?
Sami had a condition with his eyes.
He wasn't supposed to drive at night.
How do you know?
I was married to him
for five years until he met your sister
at his store.
He was the one who repaired her violin.
The good news is that it's authentic.
The bad news is that... Sorry.
The bad news is that
this whole piece of the violin is new.
Does it affect the sound?
No, no, no. The scroll is purely decorative.
Many instruments at this time
had a graft. Here.
The old violins had a shorter neck
and the angle of the fingerboard
was different,
and then when the new style
was introduced,
a cut was made here.
This way the scroll could be kept
while the neck was being worked on.
Can you...
I've made some drawings
on how I can reconstruct this.
With what?
I... Okay.
I... I brought this with me from Paris.
It was attached to an old violin
that was destroyed during the war.
- The same make?
- No, it's part of the same workshop.
This would make the scroll identical.
I can attach this to your violin.
Here.
Look at the drawing.
See?
It would be like this.
But in the end, it would be smooth.
You feel it? Smooth.
Your mother plays like a goddess.
How long have you been standing there?
He wants us in for dinner.
Hi.
Don't make a scene, okay?
About what?
He says anything during grace or anything...
I'm a guest. I expect
to be treated like one.
- You said they were all animals.
- No, no, no, no, no.
The people who took over the airplanes,
the people who crashed them
into the two towers, they were animals.
You said all of us.
- Was that what I said?
- Yes.
Tom, is that what I just said?
Tom, I'm asking you a question.
Is that what I told your brother-in-law?
I don't know. I don't know, Dad.
You don't know.
You're sitting across the table from me
and you don't know.
Is there a problem with your hearing, Tom?
I'll tell you why I wouldn't have said
anything like that.
Why I know I couldn't have said
anything like that,
because, contrary to what you may think,
I'm a civilized man.
And civilized people don't believe
in doing things like that.
- You always change the story.
- What story?
You are a snaky man.
Did he mean sneaky, Rachel?
Is that what your husband is calling me?
Your husband wants to know what's wrong
with raising my grandson with his culture,
and I was explaining that what's wrong is
that his culture's brought nothing
but hatred and violence into this world.
You say this after the Crusades?
- After you sent children to fight?
- What's he talking about?
- The Crusade of Children.
- Oh, yeah, yes, yes, yeah.
You're an educated man, aren't you, Sami?
What do you make of this educated man,
Tom? Does he impress you?
She was drinking a lot.
She always did in those situations.
What situations?
When Dad and him were together.
- Sami?
- Yes.
You don't use his name.
I didn't get to know him that well.
He lived with your sister for 10 years.
I wasn't around very much back then.
Where were you?
Listen.
I wish I did get to know him better, Sami.
I could tell Simon who he was.
He needs to know that.
I want him to know that.
Instead he got my father,
the same shit I was raised with.
Except your sister made sure
he wasn't raised with that,
that you looked after him,
that you raised Simon.
My son doesn't answer
because he agrees with me.
He doesn't want to seem impolite
because that's not the way he was raised.
The first thing you need to know
is that this family knows its place,
and its place isn't to tell me what I said
or didn't say.
Their place isn't to sit at my table
and ask me to explain myself.
Because the way my children were raised,
this would be considered rude.
Do you understand that?
Maybe it's normal for you to act this way,
to be heated, hot-blooded, impassioned,
rude across the family table,
but in my house this is not acceptable.
- When Rachel's mother was alive...
- Hey, Simon.
...she had a rule...
- Want to go out for a ride in my truck?
... whenever anyone got angry at this table
or anywhere...
- Okay.
... she would nod.
- You don't talk...
- Tom.
Tom, come back. Please come back now.
After she spent the whole week
making this meal,
do you like to see her drinking?
- You have no idea...
- No! No!
...what you're talking about.
- You make her do this.
She is miserable here.
You make her miserable here!
Come, please come. Tom, can you hear me?
...who's civilized!
- Tom, can you hear me?
Please, just come back!
Tom, just come back.
Please, just come back.
...you don't talk!
I pretended I couldn't hear,
that the connection was bad.
And she kept calling.
And I didn't pick up.
Why not?
Because someone
was finally giving it to him.
No one had ever stood up to him
like that, confronted him like that.
I wanted him to explode for me.
That's what I wanted Sami to do.
- Explode?
- Yes.
- How long did it last?
- I don't know.
He must have seen
that she was too drunk to drive.
I know... I know it's not my fault.
But it is your fault.
You didn't answer her call for help.
If you had driven back,
you could have taken them home.
Sami wouldn't have had to drive.
You have lived with this far too long
to deny your responsibility.
When I got back it was done.
They were gone.
I walked in, my father's screaming
that he did it on purpose.
Okay?
That he killed himself and Rachel.
That he called from the car and said
he was going to kill himself and Rachel.
- Why?
- 'Cause he was a monster.
That's what my dad always thought,
and now there's no one to disprove him.
Okay?
But Sami was not a monster.
No.
Not him.
How long have you known
that Simon was their child?
The moment I was transferred to the school.
The moment I saw his last name.
It became my secret.
Does Simon know?
No.
I watched him grow.
I always saw him as Sami's child.
Not the way he looks. His manner.
These things became
much more complicated as Simon grew.
And that's when you decided
to visit his house.
I used to drive by.
I would watch him inside,
playing with Simon, cooking.
He was a great cook.
I watched him put up
the Christmas decorations.
That was very generous of him,
coming from the upbringing he had.
I'm sorry. I should have never done that,
come to the house.
What were you expecting to find?
I don't know.
I don't.
Thanks, man.
You can sell the violin now, Tom.
You have my permission.
Remember when I asked you
about cutting the scroll off?
Well, it's something that I had to do.
It's kind of hard to describe why.
I don't think it'll
affect the value very much
since it doesn't change the sound.
I hope it'll pay for all the things
that we'll need.
I'm going to the Holy Land.
It's all the Holy Land.
I can feel the baby kicking.
Grandpa, I really need to know
what happened that night.
He was going to kill her.
- He called and said...
- He could have called to apologize
or to find out if I was back.
Or it could have been my mother.
Would you like to come in?
For coffee?
Must be strange
to see those wedding photographs.
He never said he wasn't married.
It's part of the reason
my dad was so suspicious of him.
- If he could do that to me...
- That sort of idea, yeah.
Except your father did not know me.
If he did, maybe he would understand
what Sami was running away from.
What do you mean?
- I have strange ways.
- Yes, you do.
You thought I was crazy. You thought...
You told Simon that people dressed like me
don't come to your part of town.
- You had him record the conversation?
- He told me about it.
You were testing me to see if I'd explode.
Yeah?
- And you refused to let that happen.
- Yeah. Not in front of Simon.
And if Simon wasn't there,
would you have beaten me?
- Like you attacked that man today?
- He was going to vomit on us.
What if I did that now?
Hey. Stop it.
Do you think I would do that?
- Vomit on my own rug to prove a point?
- I'm not sure.
You must think I'm capable of anything.
Isn't it best to stay away
from people like me?
Maybe.
Except people like me are everywhere,
people who are capable of anything,
capable of seeking justice, seeking revenge.
- For what?
- I lost my entire family in Lebanon.
One day I came back home from school
and they were wiped out, just like that.
Sami was my salvation.
He provided me
with something I could believe in.
I don't know what you expect from us.
I would like to be a part of Simon's life.
Why?
He's all I have.
I was never upset at my husband
for leaving me.
I can't explain why.
Your sister was from such a different world,
and she gave him a child.
Sami wanted a child.
You're going to have to pay for the ticket.
The tow was free.
Grandpa.
I really need to know
what happened that night.
He was going to kill her.
- He called and said...
- He could have called to apologize
or to find out if I was back.
It could have been my mother calling.
You have to believe me, Simon.
Your father was a killer.
Why didn't you tell me about this before?
I didn't think it was appropriate.
Yeah, good call.
He looked happy.
He was.
We were happy.
And then what happened?
Then he met your mom.
You let him go.
No.
I never let him go.