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chaniToday I was at the cinema and saw the original and beautiful Elia Suleiman's film, The Time That Remains. It's a shame it didn't win anything in Cannes Festival.
It's a semi-autobiographical chronicle that follows Palestinian people, especially the director's father, in Nazareth from 1948 to nowadays. I wonder if the title has something to do with Pauline Epistles given that Elia Suleiman used his father's notebooks and his mother's letters to exiled relatives, to tell the story.
There are very few dialogues and the film mostly consists in saynettes that play on the absurd which may put off some viewers but it is beautifully shot, and the humour is irresistible.
I had rarely seen a Palestinian's movie that talks about the situation of Palestinians(or rather Isreali-Arabs) who remained in their homeland and have been living, as a minority, in Israel since 1948 while being that funny, poetic and tragic at once. Suleiman is a mixing of Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton...there's even a little bit of Chaplin in him.
The Time That Remains isn't perfect, the choregraphed playlets may annoy eventually and some viewers may prefer more pathos, political message and less distance. Personally I enjoyed the style and the way the director shows the everyday life of the Suleiman family and its neighbours in Nazareth, even though I'd rather have less Elia Suleiman in front of the camera in the long last 15 minutes(he portrays himself observing life around him).
At the end of the day it's a must see. Besides the actor playing Elia's father, Fuad Suleiman, is really handsome. I mean, really.
It's a semi-autobiographical chronicle that follows Palestinian people, especially the director's father, in Nazareth from 1948 to nowadays. I wonder if the title has something to do with Pauline Epistles given that Elia Suleiman used his father's notebooks and his mother's letters to exiled relatives, to tell the story.
There are very few dialogues and the film mostly consists in saynettes that play on the absurd which may put off some viewers but it is beautifully shot, and the humour is irresistible.
I had rarely seen a Palestinian's movie that talks about the situation of Palestinians(or rather Isreali-Arabs) who remained in their homeland and have been living, as a minority, in Israel since 1948 while being that funny, poetic and tragic at once. Suleiman is a mixing of Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton...there's even a little bit of Chaplin in him.
The Time That Remains isn't perfect, the choregraphed playlets may annoy eventually and some viewers may prefer more pathos, political message and less distance. Personally I enjoyed the style and the way the director shows the everyday life of the Suleiman family and its neighbours in Nazareth, even though I'd rather have less Elia Suleiman in front of the camera in the long last 15 minutes(he portrays himself observing life around him).
At the end of the day it's a must see. Besides the actor playing Elia's father, Fuad Suleiman, is really handsome. I mean, really.