IT MUST BE HEAVEN
Filmfest 2019
Germany, France, Canada, Turkey 2019
Original version with English subtitles
(Original: Arabic, English, French)
German Premiere
Director: Elia Suleiman
Section: CineCoPro Competition
Elia Suleiman escapes from Palestine seeking an alternative homeland, only to find that Palestine continues to follow 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, this is a comic saga exploring identity, nationality and belonging, in which Suleiman asks the fundamental question: Where is the place we can truly call home?
Cast: Elia Suleiman
Credits
Screenplay: Elia Suleiman
Director of Photography: Sofian El Fani
Film Editor: Veronique Lange
Production Designer: Caroline Adler
Costume Design: Alexia Crisp-Jones, Eric Poirier
Sound: Johannes Doberenz
Producer: Thanassis Karathanos, Martin Hampel, Edouard Weil, Laurine Pelassy, Sergey Noel
Co-Producer: Zeynep Atakan, Georges Schoucair
Production Company: Rectangle Productions, Pallas Film GmbH, Possibles Media II, Zeyno Film
World Sales: Wild Bunch International Sales
Distributor: Neue Visionen Filmverleih GmbH
Director: Elia Suleiman
Editor: Holger Stern
TV channel: Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), Arte
biography
Born in Nazareth in 1960, Elia Suleiman lived in New York from 1981 to 1993. During this period, he directed his two first short films. In 1994, he moved to Jerusalem, where the European Commission charged him with establishing a Cinema and Media Department at Birzeit University. His feature debut, CHRONICLE OF A DISAPPEARANCE, won the award for best first film at the 1996 Venice Film Festival. In 2002, DIVINE INTERVENTION won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the award for best foreign film at the European Awards in Rome. His feature THE TIME THAT REMAINS screened in competition at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In 2012, Elia Suleiman directed the short film DIARY OF A BEGINNER, part of the portmanteau feature 7 DAYS IN HAVANA, which screened that year in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.
