Elia Suleiman

Elia Suleiman (Arabic: إيليا سليمانcode: ar is deprecated , IPA: [ˈʔiːlja sʊleːˈmaːn]; born July 28, 1960) is a Palestinian film director and actor of Rûm Greek Orthodox origin. He is best known for the 2002 film Divine Intervention (Arabic: يد إلهيةcode: ar is deprecated ), a modern tragic comedy on living under occupation in Palestine 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". He is married to Lebanese singer and actress Yasmine Hamdan.

Elia Suleiman
Born	28 July 1960 (aged 65) Nazareth
Occupation	director, actor
Years active	1990–present
Spouse(s)	Yasmine Hamdan

Early work

Between 1982 and 1993, Suleiman lived in New York City, where he co-directed: Introduction to the End of an Argument (1990) and directed Homage by Assassination. 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.

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 critics Ella Shohat and Robert Stam have termed "cultural disembodiment," manifested in "multiple failures of communication," that reflect the contradictions of a "diasporic subject."

Pedagogical work

In 1994, Suleiman moved to Jerusalem and began teaching at Birzeit University in the West Bank. He was given the task of developing a Film and Media Department at the university, with funding support from the European Commission. In 2008 Elia Suleiman became a professor at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee. He continues to guest lecture in other universities around the world.

Feature films

• Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996)
• Divine Intervention (2002)
• The Time That Remains (2009)
• It Must Be Heaven (2019)

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." Suleiman also produced a short film in 1997, entitled War and Peace in Vesoul.

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. Suleiman was part of the nine-person jury for the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

Short films

• Homage by Assassination (1993), "The Gulf War... What Next?"
• The Arab Dream (1998)
• Cyber Palestine (2000)
• Awkward" (2007), "To Each His Own Cinema"
• Diary of a Beginner (2012), "7 Days in Havana"

Documentary films

• Introduction to the End of an Argument (1990) (co-directed by Jayce Salloum)

Related pages

• Palestinian Christians

Further reading

• Tanya Shilina-Conte, "Imaginal Border Crossings and Silence as Negative Mimesis in Elia Suleiman's Divine Intervention." In Border Visions: Identity and Diaspora in Film, edited by Jakub Kazecki, Karen A. Ritzenhoff, Cynthia J. Miller. Scarecrow Press, 2013, p. 3-21, ISBN 9780810890510.
• Gertz, Nurith; Khleifi, George (2008): Palestinian Cinema: Landscape, Trauma, and Memory, Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-22007-6. Chapter 7: Between exile and Homeland: The Films of Elia Suleiman (p. 171 -189)

Other websites

• Elia Suleiman at European Graduate School: biography, bibliography, photos and videos
• Elia Suleiman on IMDb