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It Must Be Heaven: An Absurd World
by Pailey Wang / 24/12/2019
“Nazareth … I’m from Palestine.”
These are practically the only words muttered by Elia Suleiman in the hour and a half running time of his new tragi-comic film. This itself is a feat, considering Suleiman is often practically the sole presence on the screen for much of that time. Indeed, he wrote, directed and stars in his new picture ‘It Must Be Heaven’.
A comedy about the security state in Palestine, the work often acknowledges the seemingly stark contradiction of its own existence. We see Suleiman navigate the contradictory world of his homeland, through a series of absurdist scenes. We experience the film almost as if Suleiman were narrating, his mute performance guiding the viewer through this bizarre world with the brilliant expressions of his eyes.
The incongruity of the scenes becomes evermore apparent as Suleiman travels away from his homeland, semi-autobiographically retracing his steps to Paris and New York, where he has variously lived for several decades. He finds, however, that the comically overbearing security state and injustices he sought to escape follow him wherever he goes.
Somewhere between cryptic symbolism and stream of consciousness, some of the films most powerful commentary is contained in the scenes which are also the most absurd. The film almost always treads an extraordinarily fine line between exaggerated satire and stinging social criticism. In the end Suleiman’s masterstroke comes when shows us that the absurdist world depicted in the film, is the very world we inhabit today.
A joy to watch, and beautifully shot, It Must Be Heaven made me laugh, then question if I really should have.