CANNES,
France, May 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – At a
glittering closing ceremony filled with celebrities, a Palestinian
movie about the sufferings of the Palestinian people under Israeli
oppression won Sunday, May 26, the third-place Jury Prize in the
Cannes film festival.
"Divine
Intervention", directed by Elia Suleiman, presents vignettes of
Palestinian life under Israeli oppression around a romance.
The
movie impressed the festival with its imaginative treatment of moments
of life of Palestinians trying to get by while being hindered by
Israeli military controls and checkpoints, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
In
one very symbolic scene, a man blows up a balloon with a picture of
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. The balloon is sent flying
through an Israeli checkpoint towards occupied Jerusalem, finally
hovering over the Dome of the Rock.
Suleiman
says the symbolism of this allows him to concentrate on the
absurdities and related humor.
"The
aim primarily was to use the symbol to transgress the border and fly
free,” he told BBC’s online news service.
"There's
a dimension of irony on my part - I'm not exactly part of the
Palestinian Authority's ideological position - but for me the humor
remains.
"It
is also to break a little bit of that silence and the taboo."
The
Palestinians "make so few films and it's so difficult to get the
money to make the films or to shoot the films there,” film critic
Derek Malcolm told BBC. "I think they must be politically
motivated in order to do so.”
"The
politics is so obtrusive in the lives of everybody in Israel and in
Palestine," he added.
A
tale about a Jewish survivor of the mid-20th century holocaust took
the Cannes film festival top award. Roman Polanski’s “The
Pianist” won the Palm d’Or or the Golden Palm.
For
Polanski, a French-born Jew of Polish parents whose mother died in a
Nazi concentration camp, it was both a cinematic and a very personal
triumph.
"I
am honored and touched to receive this prestigious prize for a film
that represents Poland," said Polanski, 68, who now lives in
France after a turbulent but rewarding period in the United States,
where he filmed the highly acclaimed "Rosemary's Baby" and
"Chinatown".
Polanski
had presented his English-language drama during the 12-day festival as
"probably the most personal film I've made."
It
draws on the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a brilliant pianist
stuck in the Warsaw ghetto, and on the childhood memories of Polanski,
who went with his parents back to their native Poland two years before
World War II.
The
decision by the Cannes jury -- headed by U.S. director David Lynch and
including actresses Sharon Stone and Michelle Yeoh -- surprised some
critics who had given Polanski's film lukewarm reviews, accusing
"The Pianist" of being too detached and stagy.
Many
saw the Finnish movie "The Man Without a Past", and the
Palestinian "Divine Intervention" as more compelling fare,
said AFP.
