Although Elia Suleiman’s film Divine Intervention (2002) lacks physical words, a series of vignettes portray the absurd, comical, and tragic events of the West Bank, conjuring Palestine’s traumatized identity in its structure (Ball, 2). The film’s entire plot, like its individual episodes, revolves around a common theme, which imparts a more coherent structure (Gertz & Khleifi 187). The individual stories of a variety of citizens that shows the severity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and just how the conflict affects the citizens of Palestine. The daily actions and routines of the Palestinians reflect just how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict creates an seemingly unbreakable barrier for the Palestinians, as well as show their sheer boredom and internal conflict among the Palestinians.
Released in 2002, Divine Intervention falls under the time frame of the second intifada. If the film is historically accurate to what was going on, then the whole movie would be an allusion to the second intifada. The second intifada was a time of high tension between the Palestinians and the Arabs. Divine Intervention uses the repetitive, seemingly useless actions, that appear as if they come from sheer boredom, to emphasize the point that the Palestinians feel as if their lives are boring and meaningless. The tensions between the Palestinians themselves is shown during the scene where the man is driving down the street, appearing pleasant, but mumbling profanities to himself. This scene in particular shows the underlying hostility throughout the Palestinian population, while maintaining a façade for how the people truly feel. The high-tensions are relatively prevalent throughout the movie, as seen in the scene where the grenade is thrown at the tanks, and the confrontation of the two neighbors where one of them continually throws trash on their front lawn. The Palestinian-Palestinian tensions are mirrored through Palestinian-Israeli tension and are shown in the scene where the Israeli and Palestinian drivers lock eyes. The high-strung conflict is consistently portrayed throughout the film, but those are just a few examples of how it is shown in Divine Intervention.
The arbitrary storyline in Divine Intervention could classify the movie as abstract; one where the metaphors and meanings behind the actions speaks louder than the storyline itself. Suleiman uses repetitive actions on a daily basis to emphasize the fact that the Israeli oppression has pretty much immobilized the Palestinian population to a point where the actions become meaningless. One example in particular that is very powerful is where E.S. sits at the checkpoint for hours on end. Suleiman chose to use this scene in particular as much as he did to represent the border as a barrier blocking the Palestinians from freedom. The amount of time that E.S. spends there shows his serious desire for the freedom that seems unattainable. At the same time, the presence of the checkpoint is resisted through a highly controlled film image, where the love story between E.S. and his West Bank girlfriend takes precedence over the inhumanity and cruelty of the checkpoint (Abu-Remaileh 13). The romance of two people is placed center-stage in the plot, while the political reality of the Oslo Accords are cast as a mere ruse to distract the occupying Israeli state and allow the lovers to consummate their love (Salti 47).
Suleiman does an excellent job of representing the barrier the Israelis established and the tension between the Palestinians themselves. Regardless of the serious conflict that the movie touches upon, Suleiman succeeds in portraying the Palestinian lifestyle in a comical manner, making watching the movie as a whole more enjoyable than it already is.
Works Cited
Abu-Remaileh, Refqa. Palestinian Anti-narratives in the Films of Elia Suleiman
(2008): n. pag. Arab Media & Society. May 2008. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.
Ball, Anna. “Between a Postcolonial Nation and Fantasies of the Feminine: The
Contested Visions of Palestinian Cinema.” Duke University Press. N.p., 01 Jan.
1970. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.
Divine Intervention. Dir. Elia Suleiman. Perf. Elia Suleiman and Manal Khader.
Seville Pictures, 2002. DVD.
Gertz, Nurith, and Khleifi, George. “A Chronicle of Palestinian Cinema.” Film in
the Middle East and North Africa: Creative Dissidence (2011): 187-197.
Salti, Rasha. “From Resistance and Bearing Witness to the Power of the
Fantastical: Icons and Symbols in Palestinian Poetry and Cinema.” Third Text.
N.p., 29 Jan. 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.
Through an Arabic Lens: the Intersection of Film and Culture 
I really enjoyed reading this because it brought to light a lot of details and meanings that I did not realize while watching the movie. The point about how some scenes seemed pointless and boring but the director did this on purpose to show how boring and meaningless their lives are was something I had never previously thought of.
This movie was very interesting to me in the sense that it contained several scenes where nothing would occur and only sounds would be heard. The scene that impacted me the most was the scene with the balloon. This scene in my opinion represents the resistance of the Palestinian people and the hopes of freedom. Throughout the movie the unhappiness and tension of the Palestinians is clearly noticeable.
The way you interpreted the repetitive scenes such as the one where Suleiman sits in a car was excellent. I did not realize that this was a representation of Palestinian’s lack of freedom and the oppression of Palestine by other nations. Your post was able to analyze the movie on a deeper level than what was just shown on the screen.
This blog post really helped me gain another perspective on how this movie could be viewed. Especially when you mention that the whole movie is an “allusion to the second intifada”. This would explain the tension between characters during the movie, which fits well with the turmoil during the second intifada.
Watching this movie I became very confused, I did not understand the concepts the director was trying to allude to. This movie is very abstract. With little wording and more importance placed on the characters actions. Some of these actions shown in the film are so meaningless I did not understand why the director would add them. However, after looking into the film more deeply I understood that the director purposely did this. Israeli occupation has left the lives of many Palestinians feeling trapped and their actions meaningless. This is what the director wanted to portray when he showed the characters performing meaningless tasks.
I enjoy how you classified the film as abstract but point out below all of the obscurity there are serious meanings about the issues of being Palestinian. Also I like how you point out that there life’s are boring but within the film each action they make is all the more important.
While watching Divine Intervention, my main feelings were of surprise and bewilderment. The film was drenched in metaphors and satire that would be hard to follow for a viewer foreign to the historical context and present tensions between Israel and Palestine. I like that she included examples of the specific of the tensions portrayed between the groups even with the lack of rhetoric.The passive aggressive attitudes adopted by most of the Palestinian actors in the film reflect to me their feelings of helplessness to the situation, and their internal anger towards the Israelis as mentioned in the article with the Palestinian blowing up the Israeli tank. The article definitely deepened my understanding of Divine Intervention.
This blog post was really in depth about how Elia Suleiman used several hidden techniques such as repetitiveness to get across a deeper message in his movies. I agree with you on several aspects like how the Israeli occupation is very pronounced in this movie as if its the weight on the backs of the Palestinian people. This was especially shown as you said through the scenes of the checkpoints at the border between Jerusalem and Ramallah. This was a very good blog post overall.
I really appreciated this blog post because before reading this I honestly did not understand the film as well. You make very important points in bringing up scenes that may not have much significance to highlight the ones that do. I also strongly agree with your thoughts on the Palestinian tension and how that effects the peoples’s actions.
I like how you mentioned that the metaphors used throughout the film speak louder than the film itself. The metaphors tell the true story of how life is to these people and what they have to go through on a daily basis. I also liked how you went in depth on border scene, and how it blocks Palestinians from freedom.
My favorite part of this blog post is where the author describes the meaning behind the repetitive actions in Divine Intervention. The repetitive actions symbolize how powerless the Palestinians had become as a result of the Israeli occupation, and how daily actions are rendered meaningless. Their freedoms are so restricted that they have no choice but to repeat the same mundane behaviors, day after day.
I really enjoyed reading your blog post, this film was one that I did not understand very much and I liked how you were actually able to make sense of it. The historical information you included of the Intafadas and Palestinian struggle was also very helpful in understanding this seemingly meaningless movie.
I really enjoyed this blog post because I felt that there was so many things I missed in this movie. A lot of the symbolism was hard for me to catch but reading this post really brought things to light. I like that you used examples to show the tension of the Palestinian people.
I believe this film gives a very direct implication that Palestinians are tired of conflict. As you have mentioned, the repetition of daily actions shows the negative effect the Israeli oppression left on Palestinians. It got them to a point where they do not think their voices will be heard, and all they are left with is a boring life in which they can do nothing but laugh at the situation.