It Must Be Heaven
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 FIPRESCI Prize, 2019 Cannes Film Festival
Elia Suleiman escapes from Palestine seeking an alternative homeland, only to find that Palestine is trailing behind him. The promise of a new life turns into a comedy of errors: however far he travels, from Paris to New York, something always reminds him of home. A comic saga exploring identity, nationality and belonging, in which Elia Suleiman asks the fundamental question: where is the place we can truly call home?
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
