Great Film: divine intervention (Yadon ilaheyya)
A Beautiful Unconventional Palestinian Film
Those of you who are heading the theaters to watch Palestinian film
showing refugee camps - bare footed kids with running noses , or poor
women
weeping miserably over their loved ones who were killed by the Israeli
soldiers..... are in for a major disappointment !
Elia Suleiman puts on screen the OTHER Palestinian : the
highly sophisticated intellect who is torn between the nothingness of
his
home town - ghetto like Nazareth , and his almost impossible love life
on
the Jerusalem - Ramalla checkpoint , watching impotently the daily
satiric
yet agonizing incidents at the Israeli
checkpoint from his car , and time and time again , amidst the harsh
reality and killing routine we find him escaping to fantasy , and it is
these fantasy dream-like scenes that make the reality of the film .
A Palestinian woman goes through the extremely secured Israeli
checkpoint and passes to the other side causing the checkpoint tower to
collapse . The woman in the film is the all-mighty woman, she is the
mother
, spouse , and daughter of the Palestinian society who takes matters
into
her own hands and who makes the whole world to bow and bend in front of
her
strength . She is the Palestinian Ninja fighter who refuses to be the
martyr. She is blown up to a higher level becoming a Jesus like figure
,yet
not turning the other cheek but fighting and setting new rules for
the
other side.The scene is full of contradictions: the highly equipped
Israeli
commando fighters against the solemn Palestinian who merely fights with
stones[bringing to mind the first Intifada],and political symbols such
as the map of the Palestinian shape boomerang and the appearance of the
Palestinian flag underneath the Israelis feet .
The film is funny ,even hilarious, enormously witty ,and the
language diverts from direct and realistic to symbolic and surreal. Elia
Suleiman fluently speaks both languages ,telling the story - or
stories -
of thousands of Palestinians and yet telling his own saga, in a voice so
hush-hush ,clever ,subtle and so artistic that brilliantly makes this
film
a masterpiece.
Maha Haj-Assal
NAZARETH .
Cast
- E.S. played by Elia Suleiman
- Woman played by Manal Khader
- Santa Clause played by George Ibrahim
- Auni played by Amer Daher
- Jamal played by Jamel Daher
- Neighbor With American Van played by Lufuf Nuweiser
- Abu Basil played by Read Masarweh
