divine intervention
Saw this in Time magazine at the bookstore yesterday and it intrigued me:
“Heard any good Palestinian jokes lately? In TV news clips, the inhabitants of the occupied territories don’t seem to be a laughing people. That’s one reason Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention is a cure for nagging ethnic generalities. This Palestinian sort-of-comedy has a sly wit that amuses and disturbs in equal, salubrious measure. From the Santa Claus who gets a cleaver in his chest to the Israeli cop who relies on a blindfolded Arab prisoner to give directions to a stranger, the film mixes the deadpan delight of Buster Keaton’s classics with the elegant image framing of a Robert Bresson tragedy.
And here’s the best joke. The film, which won the Jury and Critics’ prizes at Cannes, is not eligible in the foreign-language Oscar category. The apparent reason? Each film has to be nominated by its home nation