The Time That Remains

I give myself and as I give possess the world by that surrender
Elia Suleiman's film The Time That Remains is a masterly drawing from his father's memoirs,sketching out in fragmented vignettes of brilliantly composed tableaux and dead-pan episodes of humour the pain of Palestinians(here"Arab-Israeli's")living under occupation in Nazareth, from 1948 to the present.The spirit of Tati and Keaton reign supreme.This is not a blow-by-blow account but a microcosm of noises-off,of mini-theatrical happenings, especially in the personal slant on his family.Scenes have been shot where events took place.

We rarely think about ordinary life under occupation or the culture shock of suddenly finding yourself living in an Israeli-conquered town for Palestinian Arabs.With the precision and verve of silent comedy,Suleiman rearranges the chaos of reality into aesthetic order,patterns of inter-related harmonies, through translation into cinematic moments,language.The film is structured into 4 parts after a prologue of Suleiman's visitation of his widowed...

Bringing the Arab-Israeli minority perspective
Let me state upfront that I have an affinity for Israel the country. There is something about it that appeals to me greatly (and I've had the good fortune of visiting Israel in 2010). It always amazes me when I read thatn about 15-20% of the Israeli population is in fact Arab, a tremendous number. I was browsing the foreign movie section of my local library the other day and stumbled upon this. I knew nothing about the movie as such going in, other than that it deal with the Arab-Israeli perspective within Isreal, and that was good enough for me.

"The Time That Remains" (2009 release; 109 min.) starts off somewhat confusingly (for me anyway), as we see a driver pick up someone at modern-day Tel Aviv's airport, and subsequently getting lost, without any explanation given what we just watched. That is the pre-opening credits scene. After that we shift to 1948, where we see the Israeli Defense Army occupy/liberate (depending on your perspective) the town of Nazareth (yes, that...

"Absurdist Qualities"
The historical potrayal of the 1948 War is well-done and realistic for the most part. Subsequently the film feels too "artsy/poetic"--over-endowed with metaphors, symbols and absurdist episodes. This would have been a much better film without the surreal quality.

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