Le temps qu'il reste

The Time That Remains is a cinematic marvel about war, family and love. Elia Suleiman with his brilliant comic timing accompanied with visually arresting portraits of Israel and yesteryear's Holyland, exposes his personality for the screen. An art house film with all the fixings especially history, cultural entanglement and humanity during a time of great duress. The story depicts a land that has passed us by but memories remain in dialogue, tradition and repetition. A true masterpiece. X Compares to the scope and depth and landscape of great cinema like Roma, the humor of Dr. Strangelove and the ingenious of the Coen Brothers.

A quick history of Absurdistan, the country now known as Israel or Palestine (depending on which part of the wall you end up on). A personalised account starting from the Jewish take over of Palestine in 1948 and leading up to current day Israel. The movie however is less about the big picture, Palestinian-Israeli relations, but more about the very personal story of Elia Suleiman, his father - a resistance fighter - and mother.

The backdrop of history is used with great consequence, as Suleiman drives his tale through varying levels of absurdity and yet manages to deliver an emotionally gripping tale. Scenes of profound sadness, like the death of Elia's father, are preceded by short, but realistic, sketches of the ludicrous and nonsensical, like a tank following a man taking out the trash. However Suleiman delivers it with such class, that he never once dances with being a pastiche and remains a poignant, artistic picture throughout. Instead of making a dramatised account full of grief and sadness, Suleiman does the unthinkable with a devastating effect: laughs it all out.

Elia Suleiman is increasingly proving himself to be not only the most important Palestinian director, but also the best Israeli one as well. Talk about being absurd...

This may very well be the first film that I have watched by a Palestinian filmmaker, and it was a good one. It deals quite a bit with the oppression of the Palestinian Arabs by Israeli authorities over the years, beginning with the takeover of Palestinian territory in 1948. This follows the life of a family in Nazareth. Much of the story is told quietly and at a distance; the dialogue is minimal. That does not mean this is grim or didactic, not at all. Regular helpings of physical, stage comedy lighten what is a serious story. There are several things that went on that I did not understand - the behavior of certain characters was mystifying, and why do they sometimes speak in English? But that did not ruin things - this is a fine film overall.

"The Time that Remains" is by far one of the most well-made and powerful Arab movies (and specifically Palestinian) to date. Elia Suleiman tackles one of the most prominent issues in the Arab world with beautiful imagery, nostalgia, music, and the silent word.

I usually do not admire having a director act in his/her own film, but Elia Suleiman is his films, they are part of him and his appearance in them as the silent observer simply attacks the emotions and makes the viewer a part of his own life. "The Time that Remains" basically chronicles the life of his mother and father and their 'silent' resistance through the turmoil of the Israeli invasion of Palestine from 1948 till today.

What is so powerful about this film is that how the viewer (and especially an Arab viewer) can go through a history of conflict so smoothly with much joy and come out with a striking view of this history. Suleiman shows will all simplicity how the cause still loves, without blood, with few words, but with a lot of emotions and things to say. The choice of music (classical Arabic songs) make the viewer understand what the beauty of being an Arab is, and how this beauty is slowly fading... fading into a lack of identity.

I watched Suleiman's previous film "Divine Intervention" after watching this one and realized that we do have an Arab auteur director in our midst; his playful style and cartoonish characters all the more strengthen his cause and keep on his silent resistance.

A pure must-see!

The Time That Remains starts in 1948 in Palestine with the invasion by the Israeli armed forces. This event casts a long shadow over the entire movie. It's a Palestinian account, occasionally a very personal account, of how life has continued since then. The movie is contending that in cultural terms there's been a huge degradation, and people have lived in stasis, their lives not moving forward at all.

The movie is a farce which reminds me of the Georgian cinematic tradition of military/political farces such as Brigands Chapter VII from Otar Iosseliani and Repentance from Tenghiz Abuladze. It's very funny at times, and very deadpan, but at others it's very poignant. For example there is literally a tug'o'war in a hospital corridor (shot from outside the building - a neutral absurd position typical of this film) between policemen and doctors concerning a wounded man on a gurney, who presumably is wanted for "questioning".

It's an autobiographical film which is shot on a human level and is therefore a lot more palatable than other politically motivated movies on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It's a film that takes place over many years, culminating in the present day. Over the period there's a decline in health of the characters shown, and also in the cultural health, the young consume only American pop and films, gangsterism and culturally tolerated theft is commonplace. The movie could have been a lot stronger for sure on this point, Israeli forces have destroyed the Palestinian infrastructure. Given that it's a Palestinian point of view, I think it's remarkably even handed.

Suleiman views the occupation as implacable, his neighbour (who is mentally broken by the occupation) one day converses with Suleiman's father and says that he's discovered the secret to fight the occupation, the answer is the (un-Muslim) option of drinking arak, once drunk on arak, the Israeli planes are close enough to be plucked out of the air. That's the level of impotence that I think the characters in the film feel about events.

I think there's a sense of shame as well. I remember when Cheney's forces invaded Iraq, the speed with which they overcame the nation was viewed as a great shame for Arabs across the entire Middle East. The capitulation of Palestine is depicted the same way here, total and almost immediate, with the Mayor of Nazareth signing over the city to the Israelis without a word of protest. All we really see of Palestinian soldiers is a bunch of them jettisoning their keffiyehs and weapons and running for dear life before an engagement has even started. One man marches into an Israeli post and shoots himself as an act of defiance and protest, but this is portrayed with nil gravitas by Suleiman, as pointless as shouting at the wind.

The film is really a treasure trove of absurd vignettes that I don't want to delve into too deeply and spoil the movie for you, but I've got a list of at least ten other highly memorable moments in this film.

For you all you Americans out there, the movie is quite hostile towards American foreign policy. You won't see an American in the movie though. I don't think it's that controversial, it's pretty clear that the only real special relationship the US has had over the last half a century, in foreign policy terms, has been with Israel, and that's been to the detriment of the Palestinians.

I think the movie is a masterpiece of cogent dissent.