On December 4th, Elia Suleiman proposed his new film: It Must be Heaven. A soft and offbeat comedy that shows the social and cultural disparities between three diametrically different cities: from Nazareth to Paris and New York. On the occasion of its release on VOD and digital purchase on April 4, it's time to come back to this nugget that we recommend without moderation.
A burlesque comedy
It Must be Heaven is a very subtle film, brimming with intelligence and mischief. Elia Suleiman places himself as a worthy heir to Jacques Tati's cinema by offering a comedy of the absurd, perfectly controlled. It is the story of a silent traveler, who brings his synthetic gaze to a strange world, in which he seeks his place. The protagonist leaves his native Palestinian land to try to see how the world is doing. 
He then decided to put his suitcase in Paris, to draw an absurd and poetic portrait of the French. Through a benevolent gentleness, Elia Suleiman paints the picture of a free country, where everyday life is elegant, playful and refreshing. Always with great humour, he demonstrates the disparities that obviously appear between Palestine and France and recalls that peace and freedom dominate our way of life. The director also demonstrates that the French nation does not have the same problems as his native country. The difficulties seem totally trivial, even absurd, without any real reason for being, far from the barbarity and savagery of war. He uses impactful universal visions to illustrate his comic remarks and his political springs. It's hard to forget the image of these French policemen on their Gyroroues, damn hilarious. It is with this kind of ideas that Elia Sulaiman brings an offbeat and always very relevant humor. Then, he flew to disembark in New York. The city that never sleeps, always boiling and buzzing. Thus, he draws the different facets of our way of life without ever falling into the cliché, preferring to use a nice caricature, funny and effective.
A very political film
Elia Suleiman thus seeks to find his place, he questions the way modern society turns, and how people manage to cope with it. By positioning himself as the main character, who never speaks, he assumes the role of the observer. The one who looks, retains and analyzes, in his purest form. With this approach, he signs an eminently political film. It is a foreign and satirical look at a modern, eccentric and above all very complex world. 
Through the prism of burlesque and the poetry of silence, he obviously denounces the fate of the Palestinians. But not only, because It Must be Heaven takes news of the world. Through an overflowing spirituality, the filmmaker speaks of identity, belonging, but also of emancipation. That of a traveler who seeks his place, always in total silence. Through a minimalist but always very aesthetic staging, by the power of the silent who has not lost his shame, Elia Suleiman offers a deep meditation on the current state of our society. It must be Heaven is therefore a brilliant vision of our modern society. An adventure full of positivity, which plays very skillfully with the clichés of different countries. An ode to freedom, calm and serene. Small moments of life captured on the fly.
It Must be Heaven trailer
https://youtu.be/rGfJh7iOFYc
