Yadon ilaheyya

Amazing..

A film that has a crucial twist to what is happening in Israel today.

Two tribes at each others throat. However this isn't your usual mainstream war type, social issues, machine gun shoot type film. This is a film of quality..

Scenes are cut, a lot is left for the audience to tie up and conclude.. Directing at its best.

Powerful visions and photography.

You'll laugh.. but as the scene stays fix on the sketch.. you start thinking of the REAL message the director is giving you and believe you stop laughing.

I will definitely watch it again..

the balloon, the football, the Palestinian lady walking past and creating havoc to the Israeli border, the scene with the hands... all sketches that are unforgettable! Very symbolic...

Like others who have commented on this film, I, too, cannot stop thinking about it... thinking about how I was lured to the theater by a very good trailer that was crafted, I'm sure, to appeal to my interest in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, my concerns with world affairs and other cultures. I was used!

From beginning to end, a chain of weak metaphors... Nothing Divine - no intervention. Pure tedium.

Best metaphor? At the very end, a pressure cooker - and the old lady saying "Turn it off."

I can't remember being this disappointed - ever - in a movie that I was so excited about seeing. I didn't laugh, I didn't cry ... Perhaps I should though; for the potential of all that this subject should have inspired in a truly creative and thoughtful writer/director. For shame.

Given my fascination with the modern tragedy of the Palestinian's predicament, I thus was very willing to like Divine Intervention. But ultimately, this was a case of lofty ideals blinding the basic craft of good cinema.

The real life issues (Israeli Occupation of Palestinian lands/ Oppression of the Palestinian people) genuinely demands our attention and worthy concerns. And from what I have read, believed they were better explored in other non-fiction documentaries like "A Wedding in Ramallah" or "Gaza strip".

Which was a real pity. As Divine Intervention, being a fictional feature, could have achieved a dramatic potential and political resonance far wider than above-mentioned works. Instead, what I have seen was a painfully average work of an aspiring auteur, who harboured artistic ambition beyond his reach.

Yes, the themes explored may be noble and the real life issues behind the film may even be deemed absurd, ironic and ultimately tragic. But first and foremost, Divine Intervention needed to be judged as a film. However "holy" the subject matter, our sympathies for the real life issues need not compensate for what can seen so clearly as poor execution and misdirection. As such, as a film, it didn't work for me.

Granted, there may be brilliant parts of surreal beauty (the Santa Claus and Ninja sequence comes to mind). But ultimately these vignettes of uneven quality are marred by the glaring failure of its disjointed, disengaging whole. It's sophomoric metaphors and monotonous, pseudo artistic rythms, left me cold and empty.

Amazing really, how a film can show so much promise yet fails so miserably. That said, I'll still give it a passing 6/10 for some truly inspired moments. But that's about it.

The problem in the Middle East is very complex and not black & white. To make a film about the ongoing war between two tribes who have the same forefathers and have to share a piece of land is not easy!! The only way, in my opinion, to make a film about it, is to make it light and transparent. And that is exactly what Elia Suleiman does. Absurd scenes (the Palestinian beauty who turns into a Ninja and destroy the acrobatic Israeli marksmen), but also very subtil stories about Palestinians who make life miserable for each other in the Occupied terretories. He uses several biblical symbols (eating eggs, killing a snake) and uses repetition to show how life gets by when you're living like subhumans. My cup of tea!!

Brilliant politics mixed mixed with very black, subtle comedy make up this very slightly surreal and funny movie about life and love in Israel.

However, I wouldn't recommend this film for everybody, don't watch it if you're looking for an easy movie, it takes a lot of mental energy to really understand this movie, however if you're in the movie for an intellectual treat, its quite fun.

This movie has the subtle humor and lack of dialogue of a tati movie with the politics and vignette fashion of a Bunuel.

Overall, it's good, yet many of the political references are extremely obscure and the metaphors aren't always clear.