Elia Suleiman
Palestinian filmmaker and actor, born in Nazareth in 1960.
Elia Suleiman is a Palestinian author-director and actor. Often compared to Tati or Buster Keaton for his art of the tragicomic, this filmmaker probes lives from the perspective of daily life and politics. It was in New York, where he lived in the 1980s, that he signed his renowned first short films, on the representation of Arabs on television and in Hollywood (Homage by Assassination and Introduction to the End of an Argument). His return to Jerusalem inspired a cycle: Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996), Divine Intervention (Jury Prize at Cannes, 2002), The Time That Remains (2009), and It Must Be Heaven (2019). In these films, at once in front of and behind the camera, he questions Palestinian identity with self-mockery and poetry. Also a founder of the Film and Media department of Bir Zeit University, Suleiman teaches, publishes, and gives conferences across the globe.
- Short films : Introduction to the End of an Argument (1991) - Homage by Assassination (1992) - The Arab Dream (1998) - Cyber Palestine (2000) - To Each His Own Cinema (2007) - 7 Days in Havana (2011)
- Long features : Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996) - Divine Intervention (2002) - The Time That Remains (2009) - It Must Be Heaven (2019)