Elia Suleiman (Arabic: إيليا سليمان, born July 28, 1960 in Nazareth, Palestine), is a Palestinian-Israeli film director and actor. He is best known for the 2002 film Divine Intervention (Arabic: Yad Ilahiyya), a modern tragic comedy on living under occupation in the Palestinian territories which won the Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. Elia Suleiman's cinematic style is often compared to that of Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton, for its poetic interplay between "burlesque and sobriety".[1]
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Early work
Between 1982-1993, Suleiman lived in New York City, where he co-directed: Introduction to the End of an Argument (1990) and directed Homage by Assassination, that both won numerous awards.
An experimental video film, co-directed by Jayce Salloum, Introduction to the End of an Argument critiqued the portrayal of Arabs in Western media and its effect on foreign policy by juxtaposing clips from Hollywood films, television broadcasts and cartoons with live scenes (shot by Salloum) from the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.[2]
Homage by Assassination is a "diary film" that critiques the 1991 Gulf War via the juxtaposition of multilayered personal anecdotes and identity. The film offers a lucid portrait of what Ella Shohat and Robert Stam have termed "cultural disembodiment," manifested in "multiple failures of communication," that reflect the contradictions of a "diasporic subject."[3]
Pedagogical work
In 1994, Suleiman moved to Jerusalem and began teaching at Birzeit University in the West Bank. He was entrusted with the task of developing a Film and Media Department at the university with funding support from the European Commission.[4] He has also guest lectured in universities around the world.
Feature films
In 1996, Suleiman directed Chronicle of a Disappearance, his first feature film. It won the Best First Film Prize at the 1996 Venice Film Festival.[5]
In 2002, Suleiman's second feature film, Divine Intervention, subtitled, A Chronicle of Love and Pain, won the Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival[6] and the International Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) , also receiving the Best Foreign Film Prize at the European Awards in Rome.[7]
His latest film is called The Time That Remains, which competed in the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
Other film work
In his 1998 film, The Arab Dream ("Al Hilm Al-Arabi") Suleiman autobiographically explores issues of identity, expressing that: "I don't have a homeland to say I live in exile... I live in postmortem... daily life, daily death."[8] Suleiman also produced a short film in 1997, entitled War and Peace in Vesoul.[2]
In 2000, Suleiman released the 15-minute short film Cyber Palestine which follows a modern-day Mary and Joseph as they attempt to cross from Gaza into Bethlehem.[9]
Suleiman was part of the nine person jury for the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
Notes
- ^ "Elia Suleiman". Cannes Film Festival. http://www.festival-cannes.fr/perso/index.php?langue=6002&personne=2000818.
- ^ a b Farsoun, 2004, p. 120.
- ^ Richard Porton. "Notes from the Palestinian Diaspora: an interview with Elia Suleiman". Cineaste. http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-3049182_ITM.
- ^ "Elia Suleiman". Cannes Film Festival. http://www.festival-cannes.fr/perso/index.php?langue=6002&personne=2000818.
- ^ "Elia Suleiman". Cannes Film Festival. http://www.festival-cannes.fr/perso/index.php?langue=6002&personne=2000818.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Divine Intervention". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/3107802/year/2002.html. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
- ^ Ron Holloway (Fall 2002). "Cannes 2002: Special Report". Kinema. http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/hollo022.htm.
- ^ Amina Elbendary (2 - 8 May 2002). "Passion Shared". Al-Ahram Weekly. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/584/cu2.htm.
- ^ "Cyber Palestine (2000): Movie Details". Yahoo! Movies. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809413760/details.
Bibliography
- Farsoun, Samih K. (2004), Culture and Customs of the Palestinians, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0313320519, 9780313320514
Further reading
- Provan, Alexander (February 2007). "Requesting Permission to Narrate: Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema". Stop Smiling Magazine. http://stopsmilingonline.com/features_detail.html?id1=754. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
- Gertz, Nurith; Khleifi, George (2008): Palestinian Cinema: Landscape, Trauma, and Memory, Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253220076. With:
- Chapter 7: Between exile and Homeland: The Films of Elia Suleiman (p. 171 -189)
External links
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