Elia Suleiman

Elia Suleiman was born in Nazareth in 1960 and lived in New York from 1981 to 1993, where he made his first short films. His first feature, “Chronicle of a Disappearance,” won the Best First Film prize at Venice in 1996; “Divine Intervention” won the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes in 2002, the first Palestinian film in the official competition. His films are marked by a deliberate, almost lyrical use of silence, while absurd and often dark humor runs throughout his work. As he himself has said, “Many characters are movements within the frame, and I prefer choreography, I prefer the musicality that comes from their appearances.” His style is often compared to Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton.