Divine Intervention

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=80 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="04000500dvldtc.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>Reel Movie Critic.com</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reel Movie Critic.com"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id1921.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Open Range"><U>Open Range</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1920.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Guys"><U>The Guys</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1918.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Confidence"><U>Confidence</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1914.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Japon"><U>Japon</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1912.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="West Side Story"><U>West Side Story</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1911.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="House of 1000 Corpses"><U>House of 1000 Corpses</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1897.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Peoples Voice Movie Preview May 2003"><U>People's Voice Movie Preview May 2003</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1910.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Brenda Sexton Announced as Managing Dire"><U>Brenda Sexton Announced as Managing Director of the Illinois Film Office</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1915.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Malibus Most Wanted"><U>Malibu's Most Wanted</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1917.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Mighty Wind"><U>A Mighty Wind</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1922.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fellini: Im a Born Liar"><U>Fellini: I'm a Born Liar</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1923.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Simone"><U>Simone</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1924.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Creating Victor Vargas: A Conversation "><U>Creating Victor Vargas:  A Conversation with Peter Sollett, Victor Rasuk and Judy Marte</U></A>   |   <B>Divine Intervention</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="041d2c00dvldtc.png"> <div> <B>Home Page for</B></div> <div> <B>      </B><A HREF="http://newbookdiscounts.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://newbookdiscounts.com/"><U><B>Books</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>           </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelforless/id364.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelfor"><U><B>Travel</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>                </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/"><U><B>Movies</B></U></A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>                   </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelforless/id361.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelfor"><U><B>Great Web Sites</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Similar Genres</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=400 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> Divine Intervention</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="588"><div> êêê</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 24 WIDTH="588"><div> <A HREF="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com"><U><U>Reviewed by Lee Shoquist</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>Divine Intervention</B>, the striking new film from Palestine about the Palestine/Israeli conflict, is an original cinematic journey that takes a very serious subject, throws in some mannered comedy, some allegory, some pain and some fantasy en route to being one of the strangest movie hybrids in recent memory.  </div> <bR> <div> The complex <B>Divine Intervention</B> features Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, in a wordless performance suggesting a sad clown, as a filmmaker trying to navigate the political and personal issues in his life, which are inextricably linked.   His father has recently suffered a heart attack, and his girlfriend (the striking Manal Khader) resides in the West Bank, creating an extreme difficulty in moving back and forth across a military checkpoint from Jerusalem to Ramallah.  </div> <bR> <div> The set-up of the film is really quite funny, detailing the eccentric goings-on amongst a group of neighbors who reside in a small Palestinian town.  There are those who destroy others' property, sit around all day commenting cynically on all they view, a lonely older man dissatisfied with life and a teenaged soccer player obsessively bouncing a ball to the rooftops.   </div> <bR> <div> All of this is impressively captured under the watchful gaze of a camera that often - not exclusively - hovers from a distance, with a static frame, observing behavior that is repeated over and over, often tempered by the neighborhood bickering.    There's a lot of energy and spark in these sequences that seem to set a whimsical, comedic tone for the film.   </div> <bR> <div> But <B>Divine</B> <B>Intervention</B>'s genius is more than just plot points.  Composed of a series of short scenes that function as minimalist, controlled vignettes, it's a rich political parable about the tense relationship between the two regions, and the pressures they impose on day-to-day life.   Suleiman brilliantly weaves the film together with disparate tones that range from light satire, to melancholy, to self-referential movie-making jabs (witness the significance of the yellow post-its), to sincere sadness and then on to violence and fantasy.  </div> <bR> <div> Obviously the lovers are extremely limited by the physical barriers between their two worlds, and there are a few very telling scenes where they essentially just sit together in a car at the checkpoint, holding hands, massaging each other's fingers.  Their tentative playfulness indicates much about their ability to accept the limitations of their relationship and political restrictions placed on them.  </div> <bR> <div> There are many memorable scenes, but the scene where Khader first appears in the film, throwing caution to the wind while walking across the checkpoint, reducing the soldiers to their most base impulses, destroying a watch tower with a only a glance, is just about perfect.  </div> <div> Only a late sequence involving a fantasy female Palestinian guerilla decimating a series of Israeli soldiers feels overwrought and out of sync with the rest of the film.  </div> <bR> <div> <B>Divine Intervention</B> is a provocative movie that offers a fairly easy read on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, with humor, heart and whimsy.  It's a smart and confident film.  </div> <bR> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> 92 Minutes</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> Not Rated - Profanity and Violence</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div>  In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="621" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ROWS" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="617"><div> <B>Lee Shoquist © 2003</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> <A HREF="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com"><U><U>Leeshoquist.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>