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Divine Intervention (Yadon Ilaheyya) is a 2002 film by the Israeli Palestinian director Elie Suleiman, which may be described as a surreal black comedy. The film consists largely of a series of brief interconnected sketches, but for the most part records a day in the life of a Palestinian living in Nazareth, whose girlfriend lives several checkpoints away in the West Bank city of Ramallah. As the pair are not allowed to move between the two cities, they must spend their time together at the Israeli army checkpoint.
The film won the prestigious jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2002. However, attempts to include the film as a candidate for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards caused considerable controversy. In late 2002, producer Humbert Balsan authorized the US distributor of the film to release a statement which stated that Balsan had asked the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences if the film could run for best foreign language picture. According to Balsan, the answer was no, because "Palestine is not a state we recognize in our rules." (More here) Many people saw the decision not to consider the film as a result of political pressure from pro-Israel organisations. However, after a lot of political pressure from pro-Palestinian organisations the film was eventually considered for an Oscar the following year.
Some of the films memorable scenes: a sexy young Palestinian woman defies Israeli soldiers and struts through a check-point as if it were the catwalk of a fashion show; a Palestinian man spits an olive pip at a tank which promptly blows up; Santa Claus is chased up the sun-drenched hills of Nazareth by a gang of knife-wielding school kids; Israeli police use a blindfolded Palestinian prisoner to provide directions to tourists in Jerusalem; a Palestinian collaborator casually extinguishes his firebombed house on a daily basis; and a female Palestinian ninja descends from the sky, holding the map of ‘Palestine’ as her battle shield, as she fights the IDF.
The film won the prestigious jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2002. However, attempts to include the film as a candidate for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards caused considerable controversy. In late 2002, producer Humbert Balsan authorized the US distributor of the film to release a statement which stated that Balsan had asked the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences if the film could run for best foreign language picture. According to Balsan, the answer was no, because "Palestine is not a state we recognize in our rules." (More here) Many people saw the decision not to consider the film as a result of political pressure from pro-Israel organisations. However, after a lot of political pressure from pro-Palestinian organisations the film was eventually considered for an Oscar the following year.
Some of the films memorable scenes: a sexy young Palestinian woman defies Israeli soldiers and struts through a check-point as if it were the catwalk of a fashion show; a Palestinian man spits an olive pip at a tank which promptly blows up; Santa Claus is chased up the sun-drenched hills of Nazareth by a gang of knife-wielding school kids; Israeli police use a blindfolded Palestinian prisoner to provide directions to tourists in Jerusalem; a Palestinian collaborator casually extinguishes his firebombed house on a daily basis; and a female Palestinian ninja descends from the sky, holding the map of ‘Palestine’ as her battle shield, as she fights the IDF.
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