‘To be or not to be ….a Palestinian.’ So writes the central figure in Elia Suleiman’s semi-autobiographical debut. Honoured as Best First Film at Venice in 1997, it is filled with often humorous vignettes, from a Palestinian woman’s comical use of an army walkie-talkie, to the contrast between a stream of excited Jerusalem-bound Japanese tourists and the silently chain-smoking Palestinians who observe them. Developing many of the themes and ideas he’d later employ to such great effect in Divine Intervention, Suleiman creates an affecting portrait of what it means to be a Palestinian, and the surreal dichotomy of being a people without a state.

Israel-Palestine 1996/Dir Elia Suleiman.
With Elia Suleiman, Nazira Suleiman, Ola Tabari.
88 mins.