Divine Intervention

Divine Intervention (يد إلهية, 2002) is a Palestinian film written, directed by and starring Elia Suleiman — watch it online on iFILM. A co-production between Germany, France, Morocco and the Netherlands.

The film has no conventional story. It builds a mosaic of vignettes: a Nazareth neighbor who methodically dumps his trash over the wall each morning, a Santa Claus chased by a gang of youths, a red balloon bearing Yasser Arafat's face floating past an Israeli checkpoint. At the center is a wordless love affair — a man from Jerusalem and a woman from Ramallah who meet at the Al-Ram crossing, sit in his car, barely speak, hold hands. The checkpoint splits their cities in two; it doesn't split them.

Suleiman, who grew up in Nazareth himself, films the machinery of occupation through deadpan absurdism: no speeches, just ordinary details pushed to surreal extremes. The Cannes jury in 2002 awarded it the Jury Prize. Stream Divine Intervention online on iFILM.