As was the case for 'Divine Intervention', Elia Suleiman's former masterpiece, the viewer can't help but admire the originality of its style. What a wonderful thing that a Palestinian should be able to evoke the situation prevailing in his motherland and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict not in a full-frontal, simplistic, dogmatic way (which would be forgivable given the circumstances) but in an unexpected, humorous, quirky, poetic fashion, a little as if Harry Langdon, Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati had decided to tackle geopolitics for once. Suleiman's talent is really offbeat : contemplation in preference to action (the narrator played by Suleiman himself observes more than he acts); silence rather than significant dialog (the main protagonists hardly ever speak and those who express themselves the most are secondary characters saying only superficial things); symbolism before realism (the Israeli taxi driver lost in the turmoil of a summer storm, not knowing where he is going, not recognizing his country anymore).
Occasionally very funny (the Iraqi soldier who can't find the battlefield; the gun of a tank following the coming and going of a young Palestinian in the process of taking out his trash bag and talking on his mobile phone without caring the least bit about the threat), 'The Time That remains' contains crazy gags which are a relevant reflection of the absurd atmosphere reigning in Palestine. But most of the time, the film consists in the poetic account of the odd life Palestinians are forced to live, concentrating mainly on the director's parents,a shy but loving mother and a fearless rebellious father, to whom the director pays homage. Not the type to wear his heart on his sleeve, Suleiman expresses his filial love with discretion and restraint. The scenes with his mother aged eighty and with his father dying in the car are particularly moving.
'The Time That Remains' looks like no other film of any sort. Go and see it.
Occasionally very funny (the Iraqi soldier who can't find the battlefield; the gun of a tank following the coming and going of a young Palestinian in the process of taking out his trash bag and talking on his mobile phone without caring the least bit about the threat), 'The Time That remains' contains crazy gags which are a relevant reflection of the absurd atmosphere reigning in Palestine. But most of the time, the film consists in the poetic account of the odd life Palestinians are forced to live, concentrating mainly on the director's parents,a shy but loving mother and a fearless rebellious father, to whom the director pays homage. Not the type to wear his heart on his sleeve, Suleiman expresses his filial love with discretion and restraint. The scenes with his mother aged eighty and with his father dying in the car are particularly moving.
'The Time That Remains' looks like no other film of any sort. Go and see it.