It Must Be Heaven

Elia Suleiman war nie wirklich weg, hat sich nur versteckt. In seinem Comeback erkundet der palästinensische König des Deadpan-Absurdismus die Welt. Das heißt, er zeigt ein globalisiertes Palästina. Auf einer Reise durch sein Heimatland, Paris und New York agiert der wie gewohnt sich selbst spielende Filmemacher als stummer Beobachter von allerhand Merkwürdigkeiten. Er demonstriert, was es bedeutet, hinter Zäunen zu leben, und reflektiert dabei virtuos sein Leben als Filmemacher. Das erinnert gleichermaßen an Jacques Tati wie an NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. Mal ist das politisch, mal macht es einfach nur Spaß und meist beides zugleich. (Patrick Holzapfel)

In Anwesenheit von Elia Suleiman.

The character played by Elia Suleiman in IT MUST BE HEAVEN is an enigmatic man who observes everything and says nothing, traveling first to France and then to the United States in search of funding for a film. In Paris, his project is rebuffed for not being Palestinian enough, although it does avoid exoticism and the conflict with the Israelis; in New York, he is directly ignored. What is genius about Suleiman’s film is the degree of perfection in his poetics of the absurd. Through this character, who watches everything from afar, everyday practices mostly become absurd. In Paris, a military parade, a ridiculous police checkpoint or a nurse who attends a man sleeping on the street as if he were a passenger on a commercial flight all expose a human comedy not devoid of cruelty. Nonsensical situations also abound in New York; what happens there when the character goes to a supermarket is the best gag of the year, because it uses ridicule to “denature” the acritical acceptance of unacceptable practices in this heterodox political film. The humorous deconstruction of delirium is a prerogative of only the best film comedians. (Roger Koza)

In the presence of Elia Suleiman.