In 2019, Palestinian director Elia Suleiman released his film It Must Be Heaven, later being selected for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Suleiman stars as the main character in the film and gives off a Woody Allen aura, as he walks around and interacts without saying a word while widening his eyes and comedic expressions. It Must Be Heaven revolves around Suleiman’s constant theme in his films, his home of Palestine, the progression of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and his identity. Divided into three settings, the film follows Suleiman as he leaves Nazareth to go to France and then New York for the production of his film on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Using comedic styling, he offers a light hearted feel to this rather serious issue through the repetition of actions and the absurdity of actions, alongside his wide-eyed and silent expressions. Each setting has comedic elements that distinguish it such as his selfish yet generous neighbors, the French police and Parisian women, Americans carrying guns in public places, and the over-exaggerated American police. Using satirical comedy, he is able to express how there is no place can escape political issues, although maybe not to the same extreme as Palestine-Israel. As well, he explores his role as a Palestinian in the global context and what it means to be a Palestinian abroad especially through the scene where Suleiman is seen in the back of a taxi in New York and the taxi driver is in awe of him being Palestinian as he’s never met someone from Palestine before. It later ends with Suleiman once again in Nazareth, at a club observing on the side the Palestinian youth seeing how his home has evolved to what it is today.
In the video essay A Letter to a Friend, Palestinian-Christian filmmaker Emily Jacir living in Bethlehem, narrates the history of her area in occupied Palestine, the relation to her family, and the current situation regarding the Palestine-Israel conflict. She documents the war going on right outside of her home with real footage of gunshots and canisters, going so much as scaring her dog for hours. With a monotonous voice she slowly narrates the situation in her home of Bethlehem to a friend that is supposed to help her in an investigation to reclaim her family home. She presents daily life in an occupied Palestine with Israeli military presence everywhere, disrupting daily life. Her explicit presentation of how personal the occupation is to her, only emphasizes her desperation for this to come to an end to reclaim her family history and go about her daily life instead of living in a constant war zone.
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