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The Time That Remains (2009)

Director: Elia Suleiman

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From Time Out Film Guide

Deadpan humour, a sideways glance at conflict, and a desire to place himself in the narrative in a faux-bemused fashion that evokes Tati and Keaton is Suleiman’s singular approach to chronicling the personal ramifications of conflict in his native Palestine. Here the director takes the autobiographical element further than in his last film, Divine Intervention, by running, in five episodes, through vignettes of his family’s experiences from 1948 to the present, starting with a reconstruction of his father’s role in the resistance to Israeli rule and ending with Suleiman himself dealing with the absurdities of current divisions in Nazareth while tending his elderly mother. The humour and the political commentary are variable, and it takes a while to get used to Suleiman’s approach of covering such a wide and eventful period of Palestinian history through such personal, comic sketches, but some of the later, more emotional scenes are particularly affecting.

Author: Dave Calhoun 2009-09-18 15:38:10

Time Out Film Guide