“ON THE EDGE OF FICTION”: ELIA SULEIMAN’S CINEMA OF BELONGING

Elia Suleiman (1960–), who appears in many of his own works as his alter-ego “E. S.”, can be viewed as a filmmaker who incorporates the personal and autobiographical into all of his films. Born under Israeli occupation in Nazareth, Palestine, Suleiman moved to New York City and discovered the work of Robert Bresson, Michelangelo Antonioni, Jacques Tati and Yasujiro Ozu, amongst others, all subsequent influences on his filmmaking practice. It was in New York, as a self-taught artist, that he made his debut film, Introduction to the End of an Argument (1990), a wonderful critical collage of Western representations of the Middle East. Returning to his homeland, Suleiman was instrumental in creating the Film and Media Department at Birzeit University. A subsequent film trilogy emerged that chronicles Palestinian existence after the 1948 Nakba, made implicitly and explicitly as works of resistance against a colonial state. These three features – Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996), Divine Intervention (2002) and The Time That Remains (2009) – in focusing on experiences of displacement, exile and belonging, address the statement by postcolonial theorist Hamid Dabashi that “[a]t the core of the Palestinian historical presence is thus a geographical absence”. Known for his experimentation and magical realism, with his work often compared to the deadpan comedy of Tati and Keaton, Suleiman’s cinema is distinguished by its charm, warmth and effervescence. In addition to the key trilogy, this season also includes Suleiman’s most recent feature – It Must Be Heaven (2019) – together highlighting an oeuvre that, though consistent in its political awareness and visual design, seeks to further the story of a nation.

Wednesday 15 October

7:00pm CHRONICLE OF A DISAPPEARANCE

Elia Suleiman (1996) 88 mins – M

Set in the tense atmosphere following the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the subsequent (first) election of Benjamin Netanyahu, Suleiman’s debut feature expresses the uncertainties of Palestinian daily life through a disconnected, disquieting and comic series of vignettes. Starring Suleiman himself along with many of his family members, the director’s innate humanism and his film’s eclectic tapestry combine for a movingly egalitarian experience. Winner of the Luigi De Laurentiis Award for a Debut Film at the 1996 Venice Film Festival.

35mm print.

CTEQ ANNOTATION
Chronicle of a Disappearance
by Indigo Bailey

8:45pm DIVINE INTERVENTION

Elia Suleiman (2002) 92 mins – MA 15+

Awarded both the Jury Prize and FIPRESCI Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, writer-director-performer Suleiman’s surrealist dark comedy highlights, through a series of loosely connected vignettes, the absurdity of everyday life in occupied Palestine and the steadfastness of the country’s people. Like Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati, whose films his approach is often likened to, Suleiman also stars in the lead role as the expressionless protagonist who acts as a silent conduit for the audience as he navigates security checkpoints, blossoming love and a family crisis in occupied Palestine.

35mm print.

CTEQ ANNOTATION
Quiet Resistance: Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention
by Danica van de Velde

Wednesday 22 October

7:00pm THE TIME THAT REMAINS

Elia Suleiman (2009) 109 mins – Unclassified 15+

During the period of ethnic displacement known as the Nakba in 1948, Palestinian cities and villages were attacked by Jewish militias and their populations expelled. Ultimately, Nazareth was surrendered, which is the place where this episodic and semi-autobiographical family drama begins. Weaving together the personal and the political in a stunning satire, in which appalling and troubling acts sit alongside mundane and weirdly comic scenes, it forms the final part of Suleiman’s loose trilogy that began with Chronicle of a Disappearance and Divine Intervention.

9:05pm IT MUST BE HEAVEN

Elia Suleiman (2019) 102 mins – M

Suleiman’s alter-ego “E. S.” sets off from Palestine to travel in search of an alternative homeland, only to find, in Paris and New York, that “the conflict has extended its tentacles to everywhere else around the world” (Suleiman). This gentle and droll comedy of errors, told through a characteristic series of vignettes and balancing trademark long takes and shots with tenderly expressive close-ups, also shines a self-reflexive, satirical light on the global film industry. With Gael García Bernal and Grégoire Colin. Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

CTEQ ANNOTATION
Revelation, Sumud, and the Ethics of the Gaze in Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven
by Sandra E. Lim