The name of the country of Palestine is easily confused with Pakistan, and many people do not even know its geographic location. This country, which has always been at odds with Israel, cannot give people too specific impressions. Fortunately, this director, Ilya Suleiman, has opened our eyes to this Middle Eastern country. He enjoys a high reputation in the international film circle. So far, three of the four feature films have been shortlisted in the Cannes competition unit, and he can definitely be regarded as the direct line director of Cannes. I saw one of his "God's Intervention" when I was in college. It was shortly after 9/11 when the United States launched a war on Iraq, and the surreal image of a ninja falling from the sky in the film is unforgettable to this day. Unexpectedly, more than ten years later, Suleiman made a new film, which was also shortlisted for the Cannes competition last year, and successfully won the Special Jury Award.
For many viewers, Suleiman is an under-the-radar director, judging by the speed at which he is filming. Although some critics have compared him to Swedish director Roy Anderson, the two are actually not similar in style of comedy. It is also a quiet comedy performance. Anderson's style tends to be indifferent and absurd, with a sense of alienation from thousands of miles away; while Suleiman has an obvious sense of down-to-earth humor. Buster Keaton's performance in the silent era has moved to the 21st century. In this new film "It Must Be Heaven", the director has discovered poetry and irony in the numerous national stereotypes and the infinitely enlarged daily details. This is undoubtedly a rather advanced satirical fable.
The protagonist, the director himself, departed from Palestine to Paris, France, to meet with filmmakers, then went to New York, USA to participate in events, and finally returned home. Through the eyes of this Arab, we constantly observe and present the customs and cultural differences of these different countries. The film adopts a loose travel and sightseeing genre as a shell, with basically no specific narrative clues. It is all pieced together from whimsical plot fragments, but constantly flashes the director's cunning eyes and witty sense of humor. Neighbors who take care of fruit trees unsolicited, women fetching water in the forest, fashion shows on the streets of Paris, Americans shopping in supermarkets with guns, tanks on Paris National Day, etc., the director not only dared to make fun of his own nation’s conservative thinking, He also aimed at the weaknesses of human nature such as selfishness and hypocrisy.
The most interesting part is the sarcastic satire on the social security issues in developed countries in Europe and the United States. In three countries, there are interesting passages of police chasing thieves or demonstrators. These cross-regional contrasting meditations break through the plain monotony of tourist films. structure, inadvertently leads to deeper thinking. The imbalance between the civilized system and criminal behavior, the strange phenomenon of abuse of welfare in the capitalist society, and the deprivation of dignity at the airport security check, etc., have all become the most pointed irony objects under the director's lens. From this, it gradually leads to the theme of the film: whether in the East or the West, whether it is conservatism or capitalism, there are social problems without exception, and the imagined paradise of happiness does not actually exist.
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