Photo: Elia Suleiman as E.S. in Elia Suleiman's Divine Intervention
Though Elia Suleiman sides with Palestine, Divine Intervention's sketch comedy structure is less an evocation of Israeli aggression than it is a startling acknowledgement of a society's chilling acclimation to day-to-day terror. During the film's bizarre opener, Santa Claus gets stabbed in the chest by a group of children sick of him bringing his commerce to their Nazareth ghetto. E.S. (Suleiman) throws a peach pit out his car window, hitting an Israeli tank that subsequently explodes into a million pieces, and in the film's most delirious scenario, Israeli soldiers perform a choreographed dance routine as they shoot their mock-Palestinian target: the poster of a woman whose physical incarnation defies their bullets by way of, well, divine intervention. The whole of the film has been seamlessly pieced together from similar vignettes. Perhaps more incredible than the film's daring structure is the smoothness of the execution—like sharp, many-ridged blade. Don't be fooled by the film's deadpan elegance: Divine Intervention is very clear about the conflict in the Middle East being one big farce.
Though Elia Suleiman sides with Palestine, Divine Intervention's sketch comedy structure is less an evocation of Israeli aggression than it is a startling acknowledgement of a society's chilling acclimation to day-to-day terror. During the film's bizarre opener, Santa Claus gets stabbed in the chest by a group of children sick of him bringing his commerce to their Nazareth ghetto. E.S. (Suleiman) throws a peach pit out his car window, hitting an Israeli tank that subsequently explodes into a million pieces, and in the film's most delirious scenario, Israeli soldiers perform a choreographed dance routine as they shoot their mock-Palestinian target: the poster of a woman whose physical incarnation defies their bullets by way of, well, divine intervention. The whole of the film has been seamlessly pieced together from similar vignettes. Perhaps more incredible than the film's daring structure is the smoothness of the execution—like sharp, many-ridged blade. Don't be fooled by the film's deadpan elegance: Divine Intervention is very clear about the conflict in the Middle East being one big farce.
