Palestinian comic visionary Elia Suleiman is at the height of his powers with this series of deadpan, interconnected, absurdist vignettes about Palestinian life on either side of an Israeli military checkpoint. Mutely following the travails of two lovers — one who lives in Nazareth, the other in Ramallah — as they navigate the wall between them, Divine Intervention is surreal, satirical, and biting in its political criticism without ever surrendering its poetry. It’s both sad in its vision of the world but also deeply warm in its humour.
Elia Suleiman is the greatest-living filmmaker to carry the mantle of Jacques Tati. All but forgotten from the mainstream filmgoing consciousness, Tati’s innovations with form and tone have been repurposed by filmmakers as varied as Roy Andersson, Aki Kaurismäki, Ulrich Seidl, and, perhaps most of all, Wes Anderson. But Suleiman’s method of feeding the Tati-esque through the prism of Palestinian experience creates something completely new that walks an astonishing poetic line between melancholy and absurdity. And WOW what an amazing soundtrack!
Community Partner
Elia Suleiman, Manal Khader, Nayef Fahoum Daher
France/Palestine
2002
In English, Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Producer
Humbert Balsan
Screenwriter
Elia Suleiman
Cinematography
Marc-André Batigne
Editor
Véronique Lange
Elia Suleiman
Elia Suleiman is a Palestinian filmmaker born 1960 in Nazareth. He moved to New York in 1981, where he frequently served as a guest lecturer at universities, art institutions, and museums. He has received grants from ITVS and the Ford Foundation, and was the recipient of the Rockefeller Award for work achievement. In 1994, he moved to Jerusalem, where the European Commission asked him to initiate a Film and Media department at Bir Zeit University. His first feature, Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996), won the Best First Film Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
Filmography: Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996); The Time That Remains (2009); It Must Be Heaven (2019)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Big Lebowski
The Coens' whacky, warped slacker generation riff on Raymond Chandler, a shaggy dog story which delights in going sideways at every turn. Jeff Bridges is the Dude, and what he really wants is to get his rug back...
The Thin Red Line
After a 20-year hiatus, Terrence Malick re-emerged with this earching adaptation of James Jones's autobiographical novel about the WWII battle of Guadalcanal. The Thin Red Line is a lyrical, meditative war movie, a philosophical discourse on war itself.
Out of Sight
Adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel about the mutual attraction between an escaped bank robber and the FBI agent on his tail, Out of Sight is sexy and romantic, cosmopolitan, and full of Soderbergh's sleight of hand, shuffling time like a card sharp.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.
Late Fame
Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.