Divine Intervention: Finding humor
amid the sadnessBy Beverly Andrews

London, England, Feb. 8 (IPS)-- As the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues to spiral towards disaster few would -- or could -- find humor in this daily cycle of violence.

But Palestinian director Elia Suleiman does just that. In his latest award-winning film, Divine Intervention, he looks at life in Israel today from a Palestinian perspective. The director uses humor to highlight the painful absurdity of life under occupation.

Suleiman takes the main role of E.S. in Divine Intervention and plays the son of a Palestinian businessman living in Jerusalem whose ordered life is completely shattered when his father collapses with a heart attack.

E.S. finds his life is now divided between daily trips to the hospital to visit his ailing father and trying to maintain his relationship with a Palestinian woman living in Ramallah.

But even simple travel is no longer possible in present-day Israel and his life is now filled with the same frustration that many who live there experience as they struggle to maintain some kind of normal existence while living in the middle of chaos.

E.S.’s life is further complicated by the fact that his lover lives in Ramallah and cannot cross into Jerusalem so their meetings take place in a deserted lot next to an Israeli checkpoint.

The film mixes the surreal with brutal reality as we see the difference between the daily lives of many Palestinians and the lives they fantasize for themselves.

One scene shows E.S. and his lover seated in his car as he fantasizes about blowing up a balloon with the face of Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat on the front.

As the balloon floats over the heads of the security guards, they are torn between trying to shoot it down or simply standing and watching it as it floats away. By the time they have made a decision to shoot it down, it is too late and the balloon gently glides away into the heart of Jerusalem.

Because of the war, Elia Suleiman chose to shoot Divine Intervention in Paris at an army camp. In his film diary, which he kept while shooting, he talks about the problems this posed: "The landscape needed to be changed to look like home and the road had to be made steady for tracking the camera."

"The chief of the Department of Deception, our set decorator -- nicknamed Picasso -- painted the tank a desert yellow to fit an Israeli color. He did not forget to add a blank V-- a mark found on certain Israeli tanks -- on its side. As the colonel and I had agreed, I was the ‘chief operator’ on the set. It was I who gave the orders, and it was I who did the countdown for the explosion and said ‘Action’ which in this case became ‘fire’," he writes.

The filming bizarrely coincided with a visit from Israeli leader Ariel Sharon -- an irony which, of course, did not escape the attention of Suleiman. "While I was destroying Israeli tanks, a demonstration against the visit of Ariel Sharon was taking place in Paris."

Shot in the form of a Buster Keaton silent comedy, Divine Intervention not only highlights the tragic-comic aspects of life under occupation but also looks at the peculiar situation that many Palestinians living within the borders of Israel now find themselves in.

Suleiman states: "We Palestinians living in Israel are the shy ones. The inhibited. We act as if we’re closet-case Palestinians. Our Palestinian sisters and brothers in the West Bank and Gaza generally ignite uprisings first, and then we join in, but not without our additional original ghetto aesthetics of Israel department store burning. It is our sisters and brothers who keep reminding us of our silent and tragic existence."

As the film progresses, its tone gradually changes from one of gentle humor to that of simmering anger.

Perhaps the most controversial moment in the film occurs when Israeli soldiers use a cardboard cutout of a female suicide bomber for target practice only to find the figure magically come to life. She then turns into an avenging ninja who takes on the squadron and wins.

The sequence is very disturbing but in the context of the film, it seems less a cry for violence but rather a need to feel empowered.

Divine Intervention is one of the best ever accounts of what life is like living in a war zone.

The film shows the daily violence that many now take for granted, as well as the overall sense of humiliation that Palestinians experience on a daily basis. The film also highlights the ability that humans have to adapt to almost any way of life.

But Divine Intervention also suggests that this situation cannot go on forever. The final scene in the film shows E.S. and his mother sitting inside their home watching a pressure cooker as it overflows.

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