Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Kaydan Christian
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Kayden
This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
pontifikator
Elia Suleiman directed and plays a major role in what many call a comedy about life in Nazareth at the time the film was made. It may be of greater interest now than when released because of current events.I watched the director's commentary after watching the movie on DVD. It seems that the first half of the movie is about life in occupied Nazareth from the view of the Arabs who live there. Nazareth is a large city in northern Israel which Wikipedia says is the Arab capital; Arab residents are by far the largest segment of the population.This half of the movie shows the boiling anger against the occupation being taken out on each other - friendly waves as you pass, muttered curses under your breath. The movie gets off to a slow start, but I soon began to chuckle, then laugh aloud at the goings on. I'm sure if you live there, you know much more about what's going on in the movie than I do as an American living in another world.At some point in the movie, the unnamed character played by Suleiman begins meeting a woman in a parking lot near an Israeli checkpoint. The scenes are remarkable for both their romanticism and their stoic heartbreak as they caress each other's hands and watch the Israeli soldiers abuse the Arabs passing through the check point.Viewers should be aware that there are several scenes which are fantasy: Suleiman's character throws a persimmon pit out the window onto an Israeli army tank and blows the tank to smithereens; a woman walks by the Israeli checkpoint, and the elevated guard tower collapses. The woman becomes a ninja fighter and kills trained plainclothes soldiers or police (I don't know which) by throwing rocks, darts, and other objects at them as they shoot at her repeatedly, reload, and shoot again. At one point, she levitates and looks down on them from the air in the position of a crucified person with a crown of bullets circling her head. The symbolism is pretty heavy at times."Divine Intervention" is both funny and poignant. It is entirely from the viewpoint of the Arabs, but it skewers both sides without being propagandistic and heavy handed.
Benedict_Cumberbatch
I would be lying if I said I loved this film. However, writer-director-actor Elia Suleiman created a pretty unique, bizarre allegory of tolerance in Palestine that deserves at least one viewing."Divine Intervention" is composed of a circle of vignettes that vary from "Father Feels Sick" to "I Am Crazy Because I Love You". Using minimalist settings, economic dialogue and bizarre, surreal situations that involve a dying Santa Claus and a female ninja, Elia creates a mosaic of apparently disconnected types and caricatures. His "message" is illustrated in a not so subtle metaphor by the last scene. Even though "Divine Intervention" doesn't always succeed, Suleiman deserves special mention for daring to experiment in a way that most filmmakers are afraid to. Not a bad thing to do. 7/10.
Bill Petkanas
It's not plot driven, OK; it's not a character study, fine; there's no action, alright; there's no point, hmmm...Maybe it's supposed to represent the boredom and absurdity of living in Palistine and parts of Israel these days in a state of violence, petty disagreements, deep rooted hostility, etc. But mostly it's long, long scenes of nothing happening - or things which look like they're dripping with meaning (a checkpoint tower crashing to the ground, an Arafat balloon floating into Jerusalem, a crouching tiger women deflecting bullets into a halo) but when you try to derive some meaning, there's no there there.Bonus: you can watch this film in fast forward and it will make absolutely no difference except that it might be slightly less boring.
amr salama
i swear the god that what i'm saying now is not because i'm from the arabic egyptian audience. first of all when i read every arabic review about this movie i thought (of course they are over rating)and so i had great expectations when i was goin to see it and i was sure that i will hate the movie because of my expectations of course it will be less than that, but after i saw the movie i just said the best picture i've ever seen and all my friends said the same thing because we were amazeb by the beautiful takes every scene is a masterpiece i'm not over rating i swear , and the director (who is the actor) barely used dialogs and you will never be bored because the scenes are very artistic and has this sence of humore. forget about politics and this race stuff and see the movie from the eye of the beholder you will see a very artistic movie maybe the best ever. the sound track is 10/10 and the acting also and the directing is 20/10 i'm so happy that i saw that movie .
