Divine Intervention

An engagingly offbeat if hit-and-miss Palestinian response to how Israeli checkpoints impose damaging barriers on the lives of ordinary individuals, this starts impressively with a deadpan comic sequence involving neighbourly neuroses, rivalries and vengeful rage in Nazareth. Then there's a shift as Suleiman arrives to take care of his hospitalised dad, while indulging in tricky trysts down by the watchtower with a girl from Ramallah. The gags range from the obvious and the attenuated, to the inspired, while Suleiman's blank Keatonesque stare is so overused that it soon becomes irritating. But there's an intelligence and freshness to the film's mostly wordless comic style (reminiscent of Tati and losseliani) that is undeniably appealing.