It Must be Heaven

ES escapes from Palestine seeking an alternative homeland, only to find that Palestine is trailing behind him. The promise of a new life turns into a comedy of errors: however far he travels, from Paris to New York, something always reminds him of home. From award-winning director Elia Suleiman, a comic saga exploring identity, nationality and belonging, in which Suleiman asks the fundamental question: where is the place we can truly call home?

Special Mention - Cannes Film Festival 2019.

France, Qatar, Germany, Turkey, Canada, Palestine 2019

Length 102 mins

Original languages English, French, Arabic

Week commencing 18 June 

Week commencing 25 June 

Week commencing 2 July 

Week commencing 9 July

Week commencing 16 July

Week commencing 23 July

Born in 1960 in Nazareth, Elia Suleiman lived in New York from 1981 to 1993. While in the United States, he directed his first two short films: Introduction to the End of an Argument and Homage by Assassination, which won numerous awards.

In 1994, he settled down in Jerusalem, where the European Commission entrusted him with the mission of creating a Film and Media Department at Birzeit University. His essays and articles have been published in English, Arabic and French.

His first feature film, Chronicle of a Disappearance, won the Best First Film Prize at the 1996 Venice Film Festival. In 2002, Divine Intervention won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Best Foreign Film Prize at the European Awards in Rome. The Time that Remains (2009), also a New Wave Films release, was part of the official selection at Cannes Film Festival and won many awards in festivals. He then collaborated in 2012 on the project of short films 7 Days in Havana with the segment Diary of a Beginner. It Must be Heaven (2019) is his latest project and was awarded with a Special Mention from the Jury in Cannes.

Filmography

As Director

2019  It Must be Heaven

2012  7 Days in Havana ( segment ‘Diary of a Beginner’)

2009  The Time That Remains

2007  To Each his Own Cinema (episode)

2002  Divine Intervention (Yadon ilaheyya)

1999  Cyber Palestine (short)

1997 War and Peace in Vesoul (short)

1996 Chronicle of a Disappearance (Segell ikhtifa)

1993 The Gulf War, What Next? (Harb El Khalij wa baad) (episode)

1990 Introduction to the End of an Argument

As Screenwriter

2019  It Must be Heaven

2012  7 Days in Havana ( segment ‘Diary of a Beginner’)

2009 The Time That Remains

2002 Divine Intervention (Yadon ilaheyya)

1999 Cyber Palestine

1996 Chronicle of a Disappearance (Segell ikhtifa)

As Actor

2019  It Must be Heaven

2009 The Time That Remains

2007 To Each his Own Cinema

2006 Bamako (dir. Abderrahmane Sissako)

2002 Divine Intervention (Yadon ilaheyya)

1993 The Gulf War, What Next? (Harb El Khalij wa baad)

(See several press interviews with Elia Sulieman as well on the 'Links' page further below)

'With his first feature in 10 years, the Palestinian director returns with another exploration of nationality and identity that explores those questions with deadpan humor and poker-faced comic invention.'
'As in his three previous films, Suleiman takes the lead, playing a version of himself as channeled through the comic personas of Buster Keaton, Jacques Tati and, sure, Mr. Bean. Save for one line of dialogue, Suleiman anchors the film as a quiet observer who takes in the absurdities of the world around him and responds with a cockeyed look or quick double-take that speaks 10 times louder than words.’
Ben Croll, THE WRAP

‘The Palestinian director returns with a wry, slow-burning drama that bears witness to life’s absurdities.’ ‘…Suleiman is a master of slow-burning, cumulative humour; this is the kind of comedy that creeps up on you.’

Wendy Ide, THE OBSERVER

'A deftly absurd odyssey...Comparisons between Suleiman and Buster Keaton come easily, his stone-face impeccable. The next gag along has a touch of Keaton too....  The rest should be reserved for audiences.…'
Danny Leigh, THE FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Although his homeland remains one of his subjects (via thoughts on liberty and policing), the film’s scope is more general than that …An outsider’s view of Paris and New York provides entertaining sights…the best bits — include a tart response to American gun laws — justify Suleiman’s travel expenses.’ THE SUNDAY TIMES

'Stylishly made with a distinctive signature.’
‘For Suleiman, comedy is a kind of rhetorical non-violence…it points you in the direction of a political situation…
Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN

'Whimsical and wistful yet infused with a yearning for the stability of place...'
Variety

'With his first feature in 10 years, the Palestinian director returns with another exploration of nationality and identity that explores those questions with deadpan humor and poker-faced comic invention.'
'As in his three previous films, Suleiman takes the lead, playing a version of himself as channeled through the comic personas of Buster Keaton, Jacques Tati and, sure, Mr. Bean. Save for one line of dialogue, Suleiman anchors the film as a quiet observer who takes in the absurdities of the world around him and responds with a cockeyed look or quick double-take that speaks 10 times louder than words.’
Ben Croll, THE WRAP

★★★★★
'It's funny and astute without ever comprimsing one for the other'
'It's been a decade since we last heard from Palestine's most important filmmaker.'
‘Just as he brings his heritage with him wherever he goes, so too does he carry his creative point-of-view.  Whether here or there, injustice is injustice and a Suleiman movie is a Suleiman movie. As if we’d have it any other way.’

‘Nazareth” and “I am Palestinian” are the only words spoken aloud by ES, the Buster Keaton-ish alter ego portrayed by writer-director Elia Suleiman...and they’re not chosen idly. Like Jesus Christ – another guy with big ideas and a humble way of expressing them through parable – he calls that region home, responding to an inquiry from a cabbie elated to be hosting a foreigner in his car.’

…his new gem of deadpan critique…a collection of largely silent comic sketches (think Roy Andersson, with the existential despair shifted into a politicised register), droll parallels arise between the Middle East and parts abroad.'
Charles Bramesco, LITTLE WHITE LIES

★★★★
‘Often compared to Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati, Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman here plays a silent, stone-faced version of himself, travelling to Paris and New York to seek funding for his next movie. Everywhere he goes he eyes absurd tableaux, such as choreographed cops on Segways and US shoppers loading up on weapons. We all live in a world of oppression and idiotic officialdom is the message, but the tone is droll and bemused rather than given to angry rhetoric.’
Jamie Graham, TOTAL FILM

‘It Must Be Heaven represents Elia Suleiman's first feature in over a decade.  His latest has been delayed a year by the pandemic, yet its slowburn charm has hardly suffered for that, and its underlying desire to get out and see the world in all its baffling, lopsided, humdrum glory ensures it speaks even more precisely and resonantly to June 2021 than many other releases of this moment.’
Mike McCahill, CINÉSTHESIA

★★★★
'It Must Be Heaven is an intoxicating cinematic cocktail.  Exquisite and dirtylicious....filthy genius movie.'
'This wonderfully wacky comedy is very strange. And a foreigner is a stranger. Elia is a zany outsider. A strange stranger.'
Victor Fraga, D MOVIES

‘Somewhere between Jacques Tati and Roy Andersson, the Palestinian film-maker Suleiman here directs himself in a deadpan episodic comedy observing his home town of Nazareth, Paris and New York, while lightly touching on ideas of identity and belonging.’
THE GUARDIAN GUIDE

★★★★
'Constantly tackling the big questions in his own idiosyncratic way...done through a comedy here, a mix of Woody Allen, Jacque Tat and Roy Andersson.  The deep blackness of his humour melds with the bleakness of the situation, but this feels less focussed in It Must Be Heaven. Whilst he addresses many of the big issues, the message is slightly more abstruse.'
Rob Adlam, BACKSTREET MAFIA
★★★★

'A charming, deadpan study of national identities, an idiosyncratic love letter to his home and an unvarnished tribute to life's universal absurdities.
'A wonderful affirmation of an ineffably Palestinian perspetive on the world.'
Christopher Machell, CINEVUE

★★★★
'It Must Be Heaven is about conformity. Every frame is even and symmetrical, but their contents are skewed. Through the protagonist's bemused eyes, one sees a series of comic vignettes - almost Trigger Happy TV-style micro-satires of modern city life. This clever use of symmetry and silence makes for a charming, hopeful and nonconfroming picture that finds continuiyt in the absurd.'
Dan Maier, THE UPCOMING

'As Suleiman wanders from Paris to New York, "It Must Be Heaven" amounts to a meta film that explains why he doesn't make movies more often, and presents a very solid case for why he should. 
INDIEWIRE

★★★★
'Elia Suleiman’s brilliant new film...It Must Be Heaven is a comic trip where the jokes are deeply drenched in middle-eastern conflicts and political bureaucracies. It is as much fun decoding them as it is to see them unfold in the realm of the deadpan expressionist at the center.’This absurd meta-comedy...the first thing you will notice  is its delirious comic tone.  It is a sharp observational/physical comedy (sans Buster Keaton-esque vignettes) of errors that provides deadpan belly-laughs if you can look beyond their episodic presence.'
Shikhar Verma, HIGH ON FILMS

At once very gentle and thoroughly engrossing, this is a film that’s both funny and thought-provoking and, like the mark of all good films, the 'more you watch it the more you will see. Utilising the universal language of silent cinema, Suleiman has made a film about Palestine that is universally relatable. A small, understated gem.’

Jack Cameron, ONE ROOM WITH A VIEW

‘Another love letter to Palestine from a modern-day Chaplin.’
As ever, the cinematic language is painstaking controlled, yet subtle enough to pass unobserved… and the soundtrack uses a dozen well-selected songs that ably replace the missing dialogue.'
Deborah Young, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

‘...A hilarious, absurdist take on what it means to be a Palestinian.’
Kaleem Aftab, CINEUROPA

Download photos jpg set

Download photos tif set

Download UK Pressbook

Download Quad poster - High Res jpg

Upright advert  image + quotes

UK trailer on YouTube - link or embed

Download UK trailer Pro Res

UK trailer on Vimeo - link, embed or download

Q&A (video) at the Toronto Film Festival

Interview with Elia Eulieman in Sight & Sound

Interview with Elia Sulieman in Little White Lies

Interview with Elia Sulieman in ANother Magazine

Interview with Elia Sulieman in The Irish Times

Interview with Elia Suleiman on Arte

Interview with Elia Suleiman on Cineuropa

Press Conference with Elia Suleiman in Cannes 2019 here

Download Clip: Paris Download Clip: USA

Clip Paris on Vimeo Clip USA on Vimeo

Spotify playlist of the music

Download the International press book

For film bookings please contact Colin Burch at Verve Pictures — [email protected]. Press resources are on the Press page.