- Elia Suleiman
Elia Suleiman ( _ar. إيليا سليمان, born
July 28 ,1960 inNazareth ) is a Palestinian-Israeli film director andactor . He is best known for the 2002 film "Divine Intervention" ( _ar. Yad Ilahiyya), a modern tragic comedy on living under occupation in thePalestinian territories which won the Jury Prize at the 2002Cannes Film Festival . Elia Suleiman's cinematic style is often compared to that ofJacques Tati andBuster Keaton , for its poetic interplay between "burlesque and sobriety". [cite web|title=Elia Suleiman|publisher=Cannes Film Festival|url=http://www.festival-cannes.fr/perso/index.php?langue=6002&personne=2000818]Early work
Between 1982-1993, Suleiman lived in
New York City , where he directed two short films: "Introduction to the End of an Argument" and "Homage by Assassination", that won numerous awards."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 Stain have accurately termed "cultural disembodiment," manifested in "multiple failures of communication," that reflect the contradictions of a "
diasporic subject." [cite web|title=Notes from the Palestinian Diaspora: an interview with Elia Suleiman|author=Richard Porton|publisher=Cineaste|url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-3049182_ITM]Pedagogical work
In 1994, Suleiman moved to
Jerusalem and began teaching atBirzeit 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. [cite web|title=Elia Suleiman|publisher=Cannes Film Festival|url=http://www.festival-cannes.fr/perso/index.php?langue=6002&personne=2000818] 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 1996Venice Film Festival . [cite web|title=Elia Suleiman|publisher=Cannes Film Festival|url=http://www.festival-cannes.fr/perso/index.php?langue=6002&personne=2000818]In 2002, Suleiman's second feature film, "Divine Intervention", subtitled, "A Chronicle of Love and Pain", won the Jury Prize at
Cannes Film Festival and the International Critics Prize (FIPRESCI ) , also receiving the Best Foreign Film Prize at the European Awards in Rome. [cite web|title=Cannes 2002: Special Report|author=Ron Holloway|publisher=Kinema|date=Fall 2002|url=http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/hollo022.htm]Other film work
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. [cite web|title=Cyber Palestine (2000): Movie Details|publisher=Yahoo! Movies|url=http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809413760/details]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." [cite web|title=Passion Shared|author=Amina Elbendary|publisher=Al-Ahram Weekly|date=2 -
8 May 2002 |url= http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/584/cu2.htm]Suleiman was part of the nine person jury for the
2006 Cannes Film Festival .Notes
Further reading
*cite web |url=http://stopsmilingonline.com/features_detail.html?id1=754 |title=Requesting Permission to Narrate: Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema |accessdate=2007-04-09 |last=Provan |first=Alexander |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year=2007 |month=February |format= |work= |publisher=Stop Smiling Magazine |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote=
External links
*imdb name|id=0837839|name=Elia Suleiman
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
