THE TIME THAT REMAINS
( فيلم الزمن الباقي كامل )
dir. Elia Suleiman, 2009
France/Belgium/Italy/UK/UAE/Palestine/Israel. 109 min.
In Arabic and Hebrew, with English subtitles.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4 - 7:30pm
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13 - 7:30pm
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22 - 5pm

Elia Suleiman’s semi-autobiographical film is, per the director’s own words, “a family portrait and a social portrait” of Palestinian life in the decades following the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. The film casually mounts its drama as a succession of anecdotes which gather into gently traced narrative strands that detail the history of a family and their neighbors living through the second half of a century of tumult. Suleiman, who appears, wordlessly, in the latter half of the film, has often seen his films compared to those of Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton. The comparisons are apt, as his mild-mannered presence, ordered mise-en-scene, and laconic realism pull forth the blackly-comic absurdity of life under occupation.

Suleiman has referred to his presence in the film as a sort of “wingless angel” offering a neutralized gaze, but this is not to say the film is without deep currents of melancholy or anger. These feelings are profoundly present, evinced through the exhausting accumulation of injustice and violence, staged upon a landscape of such striking beauty that it can be difficult to imagine it could sustain such suffering. 

Early in the film, a Palestinian man standing before a brigade of Israeli soldiers, concedes his life to his dignity. Before putting the gun to his head, he proclaims:

 “I want no life if we’re not respected in our land. If our words are not heard echoing around the world, I shall carry my soul in my palm, tossing it into the cavern of death. Either a life to gladden the hearts of friends, or a death to torture the hearts of foes.”