Elia Suleiman

**Elia Suleiman** (, ; 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_ (), 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.

### 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

In 1996, Suleiman directed _Chronicle of a Disappearance_, his first feature film. It won the Best First Film Prize at the 1996 Venice Film Festival.

In 2002, Suleiman's second feature film, _Divine Intervention_, subtitled, _A Chronicle of Love and Pain_, won the Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and the International Critics Prize  (FIPRESCI), also receiving the Best Foreign Film Prize at the European Awards in Rome.

The third film in his trilogy is called _The Time That Remains_, which competed in the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Suleiman won the Black Pearl prize for best Middle Eastern narrative film at the Middle Eastern Film Festival in Abu Dhabi on October 17, 2009. The film won the Critics' Prize from the Argentinean Film Critics Association at Mar del Plata International Film Festival.

His latest film, _It Must Be Heaven_, competed in the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and had its North American premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.

### 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.

### Feature films

- _Chronicle of a Disappearance_ (1996)
- _Divine Intervention_ (2002)
- _The Time That Remains_ (2009)
- _It Must Be Heaven_ (2019)

### 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, .
- Gertz, Nurith; Khleifi, George  (2008): _Palestinian Cinema: Landscape, Trauma, and Memory,'' Indiana University Press. . 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

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Elia Suleiman
- **birth place**: Nazareth
- **occupation**: director, actor
- **years active**: 1990–present
- **spouse**: Yasmine Hamdan