Elia Suleiman Quotes

Israel, Film Director
July 28, 1960

Elia Suleiman is a Palestinian film director and actor of Rûm Greek Orthodox origin. He is best known for the 2002 film Divine Intervention , a modern tragic comedy on living under occupation in Palestine which won the Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. Elia Suleiman's cinematic style is often compared to that of Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton, for its poetic interplay between "burlesque and sobriety". He is married to Lebanese singer and actress Yasmine Hamdan.

I am more at peace than I've ever known myself to be. My connectedness to the world is more intense. I am more attentive to the humanity around me.

Elia Suleiman
The Time that Remains is a way of interpreting a certain ambience or emotion. These are the stories that my father told me over the course of fifteen or twenty years. I used to listen to him. From the cowardly part of my character, I'm always in fear of not telling the right story. I'm not interested in making epics.

Elia Suleiman
- Time
- Character
- Emotion

To think of a film from the point of view of a tank barrel is already so inhumanly positioned. This is when film can reveal itself scandalously.

Elia Suleiman
- Think
- Film
- Point Of View
What cinema can do is the reordering of this reality from a certain chaos or from a certain order into an aesthetic dimension.

Elia Suleiman
- Reality
- Chaos
- Cinema
It's crucial to choose your work place - some places lend themselves to you and others don't.

Elia Suleiman
- Place
- Choose
The desire to express in an art form and to compose a tableau and vignette whether it's humorous, burlesque, or poetic comes simply from a desire to compose an image for cinema. It is not my fault that when I go to Ramallah there is a checkpoint and therefore it enters my film. Tell me a way to avoid that politicized image. The fact is that the police are everywhere, the army everywhere and occupation is total. Whether it's a love story or a thriller, you place the camera and these realities will cross the frame.

Elia Suleiman
- Art
- Desire
- Film