Divine Intervention
Elia Suleiman is the kind of artist who demonstrates, more than anyone, cinema’s ability to transform a specific territory and geopolitical space (Palestine) into an open-air theater where drama and comedy emerge. In his films, every movements, camera motion, and situations points to a single idea: in a given place, everyday life is both unbearable and real, pushed to the brink of absurdity.
Winner of the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize, 2002 Cannes Film Festival
Between Nazareth and Jerusalem lies the Al-Ram checkpoint, the focal point of Divine Intervention. This is where a Palestinian woman, unable to cross over to Jerusalem, meets her lover, E.S., played by Suleiman, who has to take care of his father in the capital. Their desire to see the checkpoint disappear is unquestionable.
Elia Suleiman
Elia Suleiman is a Palestinian film director, screenwriter and actor. He is best known for the 2002 film Divine Intervention, a modern tragicomedy on living under occupation in Palestine, which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. This film is the second of Suleiman’s autobiographical Palestine trilogy that also includes Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996) and The Time That Remains (2009). Suleiman's cinematic style is often compared to that of Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton, for its poetic interplay between burlesque and sobriety.
Photo: Maison 4:3
