REVIEW
DIVINE INTERVENTION
Starring Elia Suleiman and Manal Kahder
Directed by Elia Suleiman
Opens Friday, May 9
Uptown Screen
When approaching a controversial topic such as the current situation in Palestine, it is important to give careful thought to the impact of different methods of representation on an audience that is already likely to have a strong emotional involvement with the subject matter.
This is why Palestinian director Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention – which first played in town at the Calgary International Film Festival last October – begins with a gang of Arab youths tracking down and murdering Santa Claus. Interestingly, the critical consensus is that Suleiman has delivered one of the most daring and original political films since Lars von Trier's Zentropa. The jury at Cannes last year agreed, awarding it the Jury Prize.
The first part of Divine Intervention is a simple succession of deadpan slapstick skits such as might be found in a Keaton or Chaplin film of the 1920s, except for their increasingly painful edge. Set in Nazareth, all portray petty vindictiveness between Palestinians, and Islamic solidarity and compassion is only invoked with the most caustic irony. But then the camera pulls back a little and, as the Israeli occupiers begin to show up on the periphery – Keystone Kop figures of petty and arbitrary authority – the film becomes something much more complex, an exploration of the causes and consequences of ghetto mentality.
Divine Intervention sneaks in the back door with an analysis that persuades emotionally before the viewer's prejudices have a chance to kick in, pointing out stupidity rather than arguing about morality. By the time the film's terrifying and hilarious closing scene flickers onto the screen, even Ariel Sharon should be tempted to reconsider his policies.
Of course, one mustn't assume that fiction can ever easily alter reality, but clearly, in all human affairs, the imaginary is the source of all change. |
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