It Must be Heaven
Elia Suleiman, 2019, 97′
English, with dutch subtitles
The line between fiction and autobiography remains as blurred as ever in Elia Suleiman’s latest feature, just his second since Divine Intervention won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2002. It Must Be Heaven sees the director leave his native Palestine for Paris and New York in search of funding and support for his latest film – but, perhaps, also looking for something more besides. As ever, Suleiman himself is the focus on screen; and as ever, he is virtually mute throughout, passing through a series of staged episodes and choreographed tableaux with an air of studied bemusement. Wherever he finds himself, he often also finds echoes and fragments of Palestine – is he looking for them or are they looking for him? Dry, droll and elusively political, It Must Be Heaven is another satisfying entry in the catalogue of this singular filmmaker.
Elia Suleiman (Nazaret, 1960) is a self-taught filmmaker who lived in New York between 1981 and 1993, after a brief spell in London. His first two shorts from this time, Introduction to the End of an Argument and Homage by Assassination, won a clutch of awards. In 1994 he moved to Jerusalem, where he accepted an invitation by the European Commission to set up a Film and Audiovisual Department at Birzeit University. His first feature, Chronicle of a Disappearance, won Best First Film at the 1996 Venice Film Festival. In 2002 Divine Intervention won Best Foreign Film at the European Film Awards in Rome and the Jury Prize at the Cannes, where he soon became a festival regular. His following feature, The Time That Remains, competed at Cannes in 2009, and in 2012 his short film Diario de un principiante was included in the anthology film 7 días en La Habana, which competed in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. In 2019 It Must Be Heaven, his latest film to date, won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes, where it also and also received a Special Mention.
More infos: https://www.gcnohva.be/activiteiten/it-must-be-heaven-gc-nohva