Watch The Oslo Diaries

The Oslo Diaries, a documentary-style film released in 2018, is an intimate and introspective look at the complexities of the Middle East peace process. The movie is directed by Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan and stars Yussuf Abu-Warda, Yasser Arafat, and Hanan Ashrawi. The film documents the months leading up to the historic signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, which saw the People’s Liberation Organization (PLO) recognized by the Israeli government as the legitimate representative of Palestinians. The directors gather archive footage, intimate interviews and never before seen material and footage of negotiations, all from the diaries of the people involved. This includes the recently declassified diary entries of two negotiators, one from Israel and the other from Palestine, which provide a unique window into the emotional and intellectual journey of the people involved and the delicate and often fragile nature of the peace process.

The Oslo Diaries takes us behind the scenes of the peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, which took place in secret in Oslo, Norway, and eventually led to the historic signing of the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993. The diaries of negotiators Uri Savir, a senior Israeli diplomat, and Ahmed Qurie, a PLO official, provide the film with its most compelling and revealing moments, giving us insights into the remarkably complicated and fraught situations that fast tracked the symbolic agreements between the two parties.

The Oslo Diaries offers a nuanced and absorbing portrayal of the negotiations and their aftermath. Through candid and revealing interviews with participants, including negotiators from both sides, senior Israeli and Palestinian officials and experts, along with the diary entries, we get a deeper understanding of the political, social, and psychological underpinnings of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Oslo Diaries manages to capture both the idealism and the cynicism of the historic event. It documents moments of hopefulness that the hard line will move to compromise, and also moments of despair when it’s clear each side continues to cling to fundamental differences in vision and identity.

The movie offers illuminating insights into the deep-seated mistrust and suspicion that exist between Palestinians and Israelis, and how these perceptions have shaped their views of one another. It does not take sides or make judgments, instead allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions as to the consequences of the Oslo Accords – both positive and negative.

Despite the moderateness of the peace deal, it was met with deep opposition among the Israeli and Palestinian public alike. The film tries to explore this and the many obstacles that stood in the way of its implementation.

One of the most significant issues was trying to rally public support behind the peace agreement, with many people on both sides unwilling to give up their most cherished political and religious beliefs. The filmmakers allow us to see the two negotiators desperately trying to navigate and manage the public opposition as well as the turmoil on a personal and professional level.

Overall, the Oslo Diaries is a vivid, poignant and important documentary that offers a unique and revealing perspective on the Middle East conflict at a pivotal moment in its history. It is a truly humanistic portrait of people grappling with the weighty responsibilities of leadership in the face of extreme adversity. The documentary-style offers the illusion of the audience being a silent witness to intimate conversations and contrary views. Therefore, it immerses the viewer in the psychological nuances of the fraught negotiations, to a degree that no mere written account could achieve.

The Oslo Diaries is a 2017 documentary with a runtime of 1 hour and 37 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 7.3 and a MetaScore of 70.