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4 items from 2011

13 January 2011 12:28 PM, PST | avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news »

Simultaneously autobiographical and fantastical, the films of Elia Suleiman mine the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis for humor, pathos, and eerie poetry. The Time That Remains completes Suleiman’s trilogy that began with 1996’s Chronicle Of A Disappearance and continued with 2002’s Divine Intervention, and it’s the most ambitious, wide-ranging film of the trio, spanning 60 years of life in Nazareth via four vignettes drawn from Suleiman’s family history. Throughout, Suleiman contemplates how much has changed in his homeland since the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948, and how the natives have tried to »

9 January 2011 8:01 AM, PST | Filmmaker Magazine - Blog | See recent Filmmaker Magazine news »

Award-winning Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman (Divine Intervention) makes idiosyncratic films about the endless conflict between Arabs and Israelis, stitching together wryly humorous tableaux that speak to the absurdity of life under occupation. Suleiman himself is often a character in these tragicomic dramas, a mute witness quietly observing the agitations of the Middle East at ground level, with lidded eyes and a mournful face that commentators have repeatedly likened to Buster Keaton’s. As a youth infatuated with socialism, Suleiman (now 50) fled a pending arrest warrant in Nazareth (the authorities were under the impression he was a gang member) and moved to London, where he met author John Berger, an important mentor and lifelong friend whose Ways of Seeing literally opened his eyes to the world. Later, in New York City, he befriended the late critic Edward Said (Orientalism) and producer James Schamus, both of whom exerted an equally powerful influence »

- Damon Smith

8 January 2011 6:09 AM, PST | MUBI | See recent MUBI news »

We'll get to what all else is online from the new issue of Film Comment in a moment, but first, here's Joumane Chahine on a film playing at the IFC Center in New York through Tuesday: "Although it actually stands as the final act in Elia Suleiman's loosely linked trilogy of semi-autobiographical 'chronicles' of Palestinian life (Chronicle of a Disappearance, 96; Divine Intervention, 02) The Time That Remains suffered in some ways — and rather unfairly — from the 'curse of the sophomore effort' when it premiered at Cannes in 2009… Subtitled 'Chronicle of a Present Absentee,' The Time That Remains may very well be a much deeper and more mature piece than Divine Intervention — and a much more ambitious one too. Inspired by Suleiman's father's diaries as a resistance fighter during the events that surrounded the creation of Israel, as well as by his mother's letters to exiled family members over the decades that followed, »

7 January 2011 4:02 AM, PST | ifc.com | See recent IFC news »

Don't call Elia Suleiman a Palestinian filmmaker. "It's a kind of ghettoization, frankly," says the 50-year-old Nazareth-born director, and he has a point. True, his name often heads lists of filmmakers working in the Middle East -- Suleiman's last two features have both premiered at Cannes to wide acclaim -- but his work also displays a universality and accessibility that reaches beyond politics or questions of identity. His films manage an irresistible -- and somewhat paradoxical -- blend of Jarmuschian irony, Tatiesque slapstick, and occasional bits of documentary, while also working with deeply emotional, almost romantic undercurrents.

The films have never been particularly political, even though they often tackle potentially explosive topics: 2002's much-admired "Divine Intervention" climaxed with an Israeli checkpoint being blown to bits, "Matrix"-style. (It was a comedy, believe it or not.) Suleiman's third feature, "The Time That Remains," is certainly his most ambitious yet, examining the »

- Bilge Ebiri

4 items from 2011